Isle of Wight County’s School Board has postponed voting on Superintendent Theo Cramer’s proposed $81 million 2023-24 budget.

The board was scheduled to vote on the budget March 9 but instead scheduled a work session on March 14 for the purpose of narrowing its priorities for funding.

County supervisors, who will have the final say on how much local funding Isle of Wight County Schools receives, had asked the School Board to prioritize its funding requests at a March 2 joint meeting of the two bodies.

Board of Supervisors Chairman William McCarty stated at the joint meeting that the budget as currently proposed, which asks that the county increase its funding of the schools by nearly $5 million, would equate to a 10-cent increase in the county’s real estate tax.

The supervisors had proposed cutting Cramer’s request for five unarmed school security officers. During the School Board’s March 7 public hearing on the budget, three of four speakers focused their remarks on a relatively small component: a $40,000 contribution toward Girls on the Run.

The March 14 meeting will be at Westside Elementary School at 6 p.m.