City School Board Work Session Reveals Budget Challenges
City School Board Work Session Reveals Budget Challenges
Division expects decreased revenue from state, is working to cut $1.5 million.
by Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
An increase in one of the factors the state considers when calculating its share of funding for public schools will stress the Fredericksburg school division’s budget for the new fiscal year that begins on July 1.
The division is projecting a loss of $1.5 million in state funding due to an increase in the local composite index, or LCI, which is a measure of the locality’s ability to fund public education, Chief Finance Officer Jennifer Brody told the School Board at a budget work session on Monday.
The LCI for Fredericksburg City, which the state recalculates every two years as part of Virginia’s biennial budget process, increased 3.55 points between the 2022-24 and 2024-26 biennium—and when the LCI increases, state funding decreases.
Only 13 school divisions had increases over three points, Brody said Monday, and Fredericksburg City now has the 19th highest LCI in the state.
The goal is for localities to pay 45% of the cost of public education and the state to pay 55%.
The state uses five factors to calculate LCI for each locality. In order of which is given the least weight to which is given the greatest, the five factors are taxable retail sales, population, adjusted gross income, true value of real property, and the school division’s average daily membership.
“Enrollment growth counts more than anything towards the LCI, and ours is flat,” Brody said Monday.
But a problem is that the LCI for each biennium is calculated using enrollment data from the previous two years. For the city and many other school divisions, this reflects pandemic-related lower enrollment.
And the LCI also doesn’t consider an increase in student populations with special needs, such as English language learners, students with disabilities and economically disadvantaged students.
“The state funding formulas do not support the increasing needs of students,” Brody said.
An additional complicating factor is the expiration in fiscal year 2025 of one-time pandemic relief funds.
In city schools, these funds have paid for six full-time instructional positions, five part-time positions, sign-on and retention bonuses for staff, contracted tutoring services, and expanded summer school and summer programming, Brody said.
Superintendent Marci Catlett’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2025 has not been finalized yet, but the division is projecting a total revenue loss of $1.09 million, and an expenditure increase of $1.8 million.
Some of the expenditure increases are “non-discretionary” and include health insurance, instructional programming, the budget for substitute teachers, and the lease on the advanced weapons detection system installed at Walker-Grant Middle and James Monroe High.
Other increases are considered “discretionary” and include a 2% or 3% salary increase for staff.
Brody said the division is working to cut $1.5 million in expenses for fiscal year 2025. This would be done in three phases of $500,000 each.
Catlett will present her proposed budget to the School Board later this month. There will be a public hearing on the proposed budget on March 4, followed by the School Board’s approval.
City Council is then responsible for allocating funding to the school division as part of its budget for the upcoming fiscal year. There will be at least one joint work session between Council and the School Board before the budget is approved and adopted in June.
Local Obituaries
To view local obituaries or to send a note to family and loved ones, please visit our website at the link that follows.
Weather and Traffic
Support Award-winning, Locally Focused Journalism
In less than a year, FXBG Advance has become the news leader in Fredericksburg, Spotsylvania, and Stafford through its innovative mix of:
Twice-daily newsletter - At 6 AM and 5 PM every Monday through Friday, the Advance brings the most important news directly to your inbox.
Education Reporting - Adele Uphaus has won multiple awards for her coverage of education issues locally and across the state. Now, she brings her experience, insights, and expertise to the Advance, providing our citizens some of the finest education writing and reporting in the commonwealth.
Political Reporting - From council meetings to campaigns, and fundraising to finance, the Advance is returning the Fourth Estate to its rightful place as a government watch dog.
Breaking News - From court cases to high-profile government moves, the Advance is the first to inform residents.
Investigative Journalism - Last year, the Advance broke major stories around improperly filed election documents, misleading sample ballots, disenfranchising Spotsylvania Count School parents, and book bans.
Election Coverage - The Advance offered the most complete coverage of the 2023 election, with in-depth candidate profiles, daily tracking of events, leading debates, and pre-dawn to post-midnight Election Day coverage. And 2024 brings even greater coverage.
Spotlights - From local businesses to nonprofit organizations and regional leaders, the Advance brings the people who make things happen to your attention.
Multi-partisan Commentary - Martin Davis is a 20-plus-year journalist recognized for superior commentary and political writing; Shaun Kenney has his hands on the pulse of political leaders across the Commonwealth. Together, they bring an unparalleled level of analysis and insight into the issues that drive debate in our region.
Political Cartoons - Clay Jones is a nationally recognized talent who draws weekly for CNN. He has returned to Fredericksburg to level his critical eye and razor-sharp drawing at the topics which make us both laugh, and look closer at ourselves.
New Dominion Podcast - Each week, Martin Davis and Shaun Kenney interview guests from across the region and the state. Growing to over 1,000 listeners in just six months, NDP has become a leading force in political, cultural, and social discussion.
We thank each and every one of you who have made the Advance a part of your day, and we’re excited to say that more-exciting announcements are just around the corner as we continue to innovate and expand our coverage of the region.
The donations of individual readers have made this year possible. Please join the hundreds who are supporting excellence in journalism by subscribing for just $8 a month.
Where does your money go?
It goes to support the great journalists we have - like Adele Uphaus - and the ones we look to hire in the year ahead.
If you can spare $8 a month, we’ll be both grateful, and reward your trust in us with more journalism, more stories, and more connections to organizations and people who make our region a great place to live.
If you can’t, thank you for reading the FXBG Advance!, and consider sharing us with your friends.
In 2024, let’s build an even better Advance - together!
Thank you for reading and supporting FXBG Advance.
-Martin Davis, Editor-in-Chief