Virginia’s budget, which Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed on May 2, includes $1.2 million in additional state funding for Isle of Wight County Schools.

IWCS plans to use just over $500,000 of the unexpected increase to restore the 1% to 2% annual raises for teachers under its 35-step pay scale, which had been frozen last year.

Teachers and other IWCS employees turned out at an April 24 public hearing to oppose the county’s proposed $113 million fiscal year 2025-26 budget, taking issue with its giving IWCS less than half of the $6.6 million increase in local funding the School Board requested. County Administrator Randy Keaton had proposed a $3.1 million, or 9.3%, increase in the county’s contribution to IWCS, matching the amount IWCS Superintendent Theo Cramer identified as mandatory expenses at a joint March 27 meeting of the Board of Supervisors and School Board. 

The increase would bring the county’s contribution to its school system to $36.3 million, or 32% of the county’s $113 million proposed budget. The local contribution would fund Isle of Wight’s share of a state-required 3% pay raise for school employees but does not propose local funding for step increases or 14 new full-time IWCS positions Cramer had requested.

The School Board plans to use the extra state funds to cover the $521,732 estimated cost for the step increases and an additional $432,000 in health insurance costs beyond the $1.6 million increase the School Board had budgeted.

Another $160,000 will go toward the cost of utilities at Isle of Wight’s nine schools, leaving a remainder of just over $93,000.

IWCS Chief Financial Officer Liesl DeVary said at the School Board’s May 8 meeting that IWCS also has identified $3 million in savings within the current school year’s budget from positions that went unfilled and “attrition,” which refers to savings that result when an employee leaves or retires and is replaced by someone with less experience who is paid at a lower salary.

If the county Board of Supervisors allows IWCS to carry over the unspent $3 million into the 2025-26 school year, IWCS plans to use roughly $750,000, or 25%, to cover the cost of extending one-time $1,000 bonuses in the state budget to all IWCS employees. Currently, IWCS receives only partial state funding that covers the minimum student-to-teacher ratios required by Virginia’s standards of quality, known as SOQ positions.

Most Virginia school divisions exceed the SOQ staffing minimums and are responsible for funding 100% of the cost of those extra positions with local dollars.

IWCS spokeswoman Lynn Briggs said the bonus would be paid by June 30, contingent on the School board voting to approve the bonus at a special meeting on May 29. The bonuses would be separate from the 3% state-mandated raise and the local step increases that would take effect July 1.

The $3 million in savings will also offset a reduction of just over $682,000 in state funding for the current school year due to declining enrollment.

Isle of Wight’s average daily membership, which refers to the average number of students enrolled divisionwide from the start of school through March 31, was at 5,325, down about 100 students, or 1.3%, from the same date in 2024.

Briggs said the increase in IWCS state funding for 2025-26 is tied to changes the General Assembly and governor made to the calculation tool used to determine funding for local school divisions unrelated to average daily membership. Briggs said despite the restoration of funding for step increases this year, some teachers’ pay may still be off track with their experience due to last year’s freeze.

The draft county budget’s capital improvement plan for one-time expenses still includes funding for a $1.4 million expansion of Smithfield High School’s band room, $180,000 for weapon detection systems at Isle of Wight’s two middle schools and $125,000 for Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant bleachers. It also includes funding for a phased approach to replacing the division’s 1955 bus garage with a new facility.

The draft capital improvements plan as of May 8 called for $865,000 to fund a first phase covering the engineering and stormwater management costs associated with the $4 million replacement building. 

Briggs said the county is proposing adding the remaining $3.1 million to the CIP at a later date, with construction proposed to start during the 2026-27 school year.

“Since that part has not been approved, or funded, we only have a guarantee for funding the first phase,” Briggs said.