Lunenburg supervisors approve $17,307 school carryover, back COVID-19 cleanup and a middle-school HVAC purchase

School leaders told the Lunenburg County Board of Supervisors on March 12 that they were preparing for potential coronavirus disruptions while asking for modest budget adjustments.

School Superintendent Charles Berkley said the school division would close buildings on Friday, March 13, for deep cleaning and that instructional staff would prepare for possible emergency school closures. Berkley told the board that graduation remained scheduled for May 30 and that the division’s 41-bus fleet included 18 buses older than 15 years.

Assistant School Superintendent James Abernathy reported a net increase of 71 students in enrollment, which will raise state funding, and identified a $17,307 carry-over from FY2019 that the division proposed transferring to the textbook fund. The board unanimously approved the transfer and formally increased the FY2020 School Board budget to $18,100,776.

The board also approved the use of school capital-improvement funds to purchase a $12,495 HVAC unit for the middle school after Abernathy said the only capital expense to date had been a replacement unit at the high school.

The actions leave the division with short-term funds for instructional materials and one HVAC replacement but do not resolve the longer-term capital needs of an aging bus fleet, which Berkley said would require additional funding to replace roughly two buses per year.

The board’s decisions emerged during regular budget review work and COVID-19 preparedness updates; no vote was recorded on closing schools beyond the March 13 cleaning day. The board approved the motions unanimously and moved on to other agenda items.