By Diana McFarland and Abby Proch
Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors decided Monday to give the schools another half million dollars between now and June 30, but may demand additional budget cuts for the next fiscal year.
On Monday, the Board voted 4-1 to give the schools an additional $608,771 for the current school year to help make up money spent by the School Board beyond this year’s budget.
Supervisor Al Casteen cast the lone dissenting vote, saying that giving the schools more money would contribute to a nearly 10 percent increase in local funding over the past fiscal year.
Chairman Jo Ann Hall dismissed Casteen’s math, saying that some of the money was rollover funds to begin with.
The $608,771 was needed to overcome a $2.3 million shortfall for fiscal 2013.
Last month, the School Board received $1.4 million beyond its budget to cover expenses.
Isle of Wight Budget and Finance Director Michael Terry said the Board had $385,200 left as unassigned funds it could use before violating its policy of keeping 10 percent of the operating budget in reserves.
Monday’s decision wiped out that remaining balance and assumed the county will have a couple hundred thousand dollars that won’t be spent by other departments and thus can be given to the School Board. ...(Subscribe!)
