Surry County Public Schools is seeking just over $750,000 in additional local funding for the 2025-26 school year.

Surry’s School Board voted unanimously on Feb. 18 to adopt an operating budget of $17.9 million, an increase of 4.6%, or $796,024, over the current $17.1 million budgeted for the operating fund.

Separate grants and food services funds totaling $1.3 million would stay roughly level with last year, bringing the total proposed 2025-26 budget for all three funds to $19.3 million. The total reflects a $531,839, or 2.8%, increase over last year.

Last year, Surry County supervisors contributed $13.4 million, or 19% of the county’s $69.8 million 2024-25 budget, to the school system. The School Board’s adopted 2025-26 budget asks for $14.1 million in local funding, which would be a $756,069, or 5.6%, increase.

Most of this year’s increases, according to Superintendent Herb Monroe, are tied to employee raises ranging from 3% to 7% and absorbing a 10% expected increase in the cost of providing health insurance. The state’s biennial 2024-26 budget included 3% annual raises for school employees, some of whom were already off track with Surry’s 29-step pay scale due to salary freezes in past years, Monroe said.

Surry’s education funding, while a lower amount and percentage of the county budget than neighboring Isle of Wight County contributes to its school system, reflects a higher per-pupil cost due to its enrolling roughly 700 students compared to Isle of Wight’s roughly 5,500 students.

SCPS expects to receive roughly $3.7 million in state funding for the 2025-26 school year, a $39,955, or 1.1%, increase over the prior year.

The estimate is based on Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed budget amendments, which would allocate just under $3.7 million to SCPS, and competing House of Delegates and state Senate bills that would each give Surry closer to $3.8 million in state funding. Each budget bill passed its respective chamber and is now being debated by the other. State funding is determined by the “composite index,” a Virginia Department of Education funding formula that measures a school division’s ability to pay the cost of meeting state-mandated minimum staffing levels based on enrollment based on factors such as the value of taxable real estate.

New expenses this year include a public relations officer, reestablishing a fine arts program and new athletic uniforms.

The budget includes a separate five-year capital improvements plan that calls for just under $2.6 million in one-time expenses in 2025-26, the majority of which is for heating, ventilation and air-conditioning replacement and electrical system upgrades at Surry’s three schools.

The plan calls for $17.7 million in one-time expenses through 2030.

The School Board’s budget is scheduled to be submitted to Surry County Administrator Melissa Rollins on Feb. 28. Rollins is scheduled to present her proposed fiscal year 2025-26 budget to the Board of Supervisors, which will hold a public hearing on the county’s proposed tax rates on April 3. Rollins’ budget proposal will include her recommendation for how much money to allocate to the school system.

Between that date and April 10, Youngkin is expected to sign this year’s negotiated budget bill, which will confirm the amount of state funding Surry receives.

On April 10, the Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on its tax rates. The supervisors are scheduled to hold a separate public hearing solely on the county budget on May 1 and to adopt the budget May 8. The county and school system budgets will take effect at the July 1 start of the 2025-26 fiscal year.