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School superintendent requests FY26 adjustments, asks for written terms for future county appropriations
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Summary
Buckingham County School Superintendent Cynthia Reasoner presented a letter and supporting documentation seeking FY26 budget adjustments driven by declining ADM and state funding changes; the board voted to approve the presented FY26 adjustments (state/federal funding changes, no additional local money requested).
Superintendent Cynthia Reasoner presented a detailed letter documenting changes to the school-division budget for FY26 driven by an adjusted average-daily-membership (ADM) decline and state budget amendments. Reasoner said the division's March 31 ADM is 1,642 (a drop of 83 students from the adopted projection), which reduced state funding for Standards of Quality programs by $1,000,457 but also produced other state and federal adjustments and bonus funding.
Reasoner outlined that federal and state grants increased in some categories and that the net adjustment to the current-year budget moves total regular operations revenues from $32,891,455 to $33,491,659 (a $600,204 adjustment in state revenues) and the grand total for FY26 from $34,734,998 to $35,493,891 (adjustment $758,893). She said some funds are grant-specific and cannot be used to offset local 5% salary increases previously discussed. Reasoner also requested that all future county appropriations to the school division be made in writing with any stipulations included to ensure transparency.
After discussion and a request to verify details with the county administrator, the board voted to approve the FY26 adjustments presented by the superintendent. Members thanked Reasoner for providing documentation and said they would review the material further. The vote on the FY26 adjustments was recorded as unanimous in favor.
The superintendent also flagged the local request for a school appropriation increase of $383,717 in the FY27 request; that request was part of the FY27 presentation but will be considered during the reconvened budget adoption.
