Supervisors approve school and opioid-settlement appropriations, OK health locality agreement

Prince Edward County officials approved several budget actions at the Nov. 6 meeting, including a school-board request to appropriate $394,266.89 in federal funds to the school operating budget and an appropriation of $26,461.22 the county received from the opioid settlement fund trust.

County staff said most opioid-settlement proceeds have been held in a reserve and used as the county’s local match for a regional drug court and a program at PRJ; the county splits program costs one-third with Cumberland and Buckingham when applicable. The board approved moving the settlement funds into the budget as presented.

The board also approved the locality agreement with the Virginia Department of Health for FY25–26, described by staff as routine and requiring county approval. Staff said the county’s budgeted contribution to the local health department for the fiscal year is $181,404.

Other fiscal updates: staff reported the county extended the tax payment deadline to the coming Friday (penalty-free) because of inclement weather, and that the county’s composite index used by the Virginia Department of Education rose from 0.3776 to 0.4022, which staff estimated could increase the county’s local school funding obligation by an amount staff described informally as "maybe in the half million dollar range" pending DOE calculation tools.

Next steps: staff will incorporate the appropriations and locality agreement into county accounts and continue to monitor DOE composite index calculations for precise budget impacts.