School Board adopts 2011-12 budget
The Roanoke County School Board has voted to adopt a budget of $131,373,270 for the 2011-12 school year.
After the past two years of steeply declining state revenue for schools, the General Assembly approved an increase in state funding for public education for 2011-12. The General Fund budget for 2011-12 reflects revenues based on aid for education in the state budget approved by the General Assembly on February 26, 2011, which is subject to approval by the Governor in April 2011.
The General Fund budget reflects an increase of $2.55 million or 2% over the preceding year including the following:
- Increase in state funding of $0.95 million.
- Increase in the local appropriation from the County Board of Supervisors of $0.94 million per the joint revenue sharing formula.
“Throughout the budget process, programs and expenditures continued to be evaluated with a focus on keeping classes as small as possible and avoiding layoffs of full-time employees,” said Roanoke County School Board Chairman David Wymer.
“Although substantial budget cuts were not required in this budget, the School Board intends to continue to evaluate all vacancies and maintain the lower staffing that has resulted from significant cuts over the past two years. In doing so, the School Board is positioning itself financially to be better able to address employee compensation as the economy improves,” Wymer said.
The General Fund budget reflects significant adjustments including the following:
Salaries are frozen for 2011-12 at the same rate as 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11.
- Health and dental insurance premiums will remain the same for 2011-12.
- Block scheduling will be implemented in secondary schools to maximize instructional time, rebalance teaching time, and staff efficiently.
- The VRS retirement rate (employer’s portion) will increase from 8.93% to 11.33% as approved by the General Assembly.
- The Technology Plan – Year 1 will be funded in conjunction with the allocation of remaining stimulus funding to address existing age and obsolescence of technology equipment.
- The joint capital financing plan with the Board of Supervisors will continue to be funded.
The School Board is required by state code to adopt an annual school budget by April 1 of each year. The adopted school system budget will be sent to the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors for final approval in April.
(Last updated 3/24/10)