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Virginia Beach board reviews preliminary 2026–27 budget, including teacher pay and campus repairs
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Summary
Staff presented a preliminary budget with $33.4M in projected revenue growth, proposed teacher pay-scale adjustments and unified-scale increases, and prioritized capital and operating items such as deferred maintenance and McKinney-Vento transportation funding.
Virginia Beach City Public Schools staff presented the fourth budget workshop on Feb. 10, outlining preliminary balancing options, compensation scenarios and capital priorities for the 2026–27 school year.
"The budget and finance department is very proud to share that it has received the Government Finance Officers Association's distinguished budget presentation award for fiscal year 2025," Crystal Pate, the division's chief financial officer, told the board, noting documentation and staff work that supported the submission.
Staff estimated approximately $33.4 million in potential revenue growth tied to state proposals; they also identified previously discussed personnel and non-personnel reductions totaling about $5.2 million and $18.1 million in projected savings from lower VRS fringe rates. The presentation highlighted health-insurance employer-contribution pressure tied to Mercer's projections and a staff proposal to direct an additional $5 million to the health fund to help rebuild reserves.
Compensation proposals were a central element of the workshop. Staff described a teacher-pay scenario (scenario A) that includes a 2% entry-level increase plus a 1.5% step to support a roughly 3.5% increase for eligible employees at an estimated cost of $14.9 million. An alternative adds a $1,000 entry-level boost to the same scenario, raising the proposed starting teacher salary to $57,801 (a 3.8% increase over the current starting pay of $55,687). For the unified pay scale (positions such as bus aides, cafeteria aides and custodians), staff showed a scenario that would raise starting pay from $15.76 to $16.07 (2% scenario) and a second option to $16.23 (additional 1% entry-level increase), with year-one steps adjusted accordingly.
Staff also highlighted capital and operating requests: $1.3 million in deferred maintenance projects (control joints, speakers, damaged floors, windows, HVAC units), $1 million to begin a replacement cycle for interactive whiteboards, $500,000 for additional drivers and vehicles to support McKinney-Vento transportation, $500,000 to support the traditional McKinney-Vento program, $250,000 to offset unpaid student meal debt and smaller items that move security staffing from grants into the operating budget.
Board members asked for more detail and organization on line items and said they would continue discussion at the next scheduled meeting where staff will provide additional documentation on departmental charts, bus inventory details, deferred maintenance lists and the March update to Mercer projections. No formal votes occurred at this workshop.
Next steps: staff will post requested backup materials to the board's secure site and return with updated Mercer numbers (including December data) and refined budget options for board deliberation.
