School officials were in the hot seat on Wednesday, as members of the Patrick County Board of Supervisor’s liaison committee met with their counterparts in the Patrick County School division.
“This is not a negotiation, it’s a notification,” Lock Boyce, chairman of the supervisors, said shortly after the meeting got underway.
The comment came shortly after Schools Superintendent Bill Sroufe said the lawful local contribution was $7.7 million.
Supervisors reached a consensus in March to cap the local contribution to the division at $7.1 million local contribution, including debt payments.
Sroufe said the division cut about $500,000 from the initial $8.4 million request after learning from Boyce and County Administrator Tom Rose that the county planned to fund schools at the minimum level required by law. The revised spending plan was resubmitted.
At the supervisors’ request, Rose asked the county’s auditor to determine the locality’s contribution. Rose said it was a moving target, partly because the state budget is not finalized, but the estimated amount was $7.1 million.
Sroufe said he also reached out to the auditor, who worked with Assistant Superintendent Dean Gilbert when calculating the local match.
In an email, Scott Wickham, CPA CFE with Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates, stated that based on the documentation provided by the school board, the division would need “roughly $7,700,000 from local for FY19.”
That total was calculated by the $5.1 million net for required local expenditures based on the VDOE, and the $2.6 million budgeted for debt service for FY19, according to Wickham’s email.
“After discussions with the School Board, I feel that they have properly conservatively budgeted” the amount needed for the required local match, Wickham wrote in an email.
If this level of funding is not met then it could result in a loss of funding from VDOE for significant programs at the schools, Wickham wrote in an email. He did not elaborate.
County officials have said they have no control in terms of areas cut. Rather, school board would be tasked with cutting expenses.
