Isle of Wight school leaders ask for $7.1 million boost to FY27 budget, citing SPED growth and pay gap

Isle of Wight County school leaders asked the county on Thursday to help fund a roughly $7.1 million increase in the school divisionFY27 request, driven primarily by teacher pay raises, a growing special-education caseload and recurring operational costs, Superintendent Dr. Kramer said.

"Everything in this budget is really vital to the school division," Dr. Kramer told the joint meeting of the Board of Supervisors and the school board. He said the division expects about $2.5 million in additional state revenue for FY27 but still faces a net request of approximately $7.1 million. "The vast majority of that funding will be for pay increases at $5,100,000," he said, adding roughly $1,500,000 is for new positions primarily for special education and a bit over $1,000,000 for employee health insurance.

Why it matters: school officials said Isle of Wight is losing ground on compensation compared with neighboring divisions and that pay is a leading reason teachers leave. The division presented a consultantrecommended target of paying teachers at the 70th percentile of regional market rates to become more competitive.

The compensation ask would be large and front-loaded. Dr. Kramer cited the consultant—s finding that the division falls behind most neighboring districts and said raising beginning teachers to the 70th percentile would produce "double-digit" increases for many staff; the…