By Cory L. Higgs
Patrick County Schools Superintendent Dean Gilbert said that although the school board passed a budget in March to comply with state law, the budget will be amended, and the county’s local match will increase.
He explained that to comply with state law, the school division had to pass a budget by the end of March.
Those numbers are preliminary and are expected to change as the division gets more direction from Richmond.
Due to roadblocks in Richmond amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the state budget has yet to be approved, which leaves many school divisions to work with their preliminary budgets, he said.
The division had created its spending plan based on Gov. Ralph Northam’s proposed budget, which was received in December, Gilbert said. However, in mid-March, the General Assembly passed a different budget, according to Gilbert, who added that the division will move forward with that plan knowing it will need to amend its budget to fit the criteria.
Gilbert reported that the current budget is $28,813,853.49, roughly $800,000 more than the usual $28 million the budget is built around. Gilbert attributes this to “an increase in state funding over two years. In the new biennium, the state has re-benchmarked the SOQs (Standards of Quality positions). So, we received a lot more state funding, even though we have projected a lower enrollment. Because of this, there is a local match increase that goes along with it. That why there is an increase in the budget.”
There has been an increase in local match funds as well, contributing to an approximate $386,000 increase to the locality, because the county’s local composite index increased which translates to Patrick County being responsible for more of the funding.
“We are going to have to amend our budget because the state has not passed a budget. I’ve said this at our (school board) meeting and the Board of Supervisors meetings,” said Gilbert. “I’ll know more in the coming weeks, after meetings with our state superintendent, who updates us on a variety of things.”
(Patrick County School Board meetings currently are live streamed on the division’s Facebook page. Due to state mandated stay at home orders, there is limited seating and attendance allowed.)
