Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
RCPS projects about $16.5 million shortfall; board weighs contingency, personnel review as parents plead to save PLATO
Summary
Roanoke City Public Schools officials told the board Feb. 10 that preliminary FY2026–27 information shows roughly a $16.5 million deficit; administrators proposed non‑personnel reductions, a $1.3 million contingency and objective criteria for staff decisions. Several parents and students urged the board not to cut the PLATO program.
Roanoke City Public Schools officials on Feb. 10 told the school board they are projecting roughly a $16,500,000 deficit for the FY2026–27 budget and outlined a mixture of savings, targeted cuts and a proposed $1,300,000 contingency to reduce risk.
CFO Kathleen Jackson said modest revenue increases from the state and city — about $1 million so far — were outweighed by rising personnel costs, including a 2% raise that the draft budget includes because partial state funding is available, higher health‑care costs estimated at about 10% (roughly $1.3 million), and special education and other demand‑driven expenses. "So that got us to where we are at this moment, of a $16,500,000 deficit projection," Jackson said.
Jackson described several offsets and programmatic changes under consideration: a recent state textbook grant for math; reallocating certain positions into CEIS portions of IDEA funds (about $630,000 of favorable variance); an anticipated…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
