By Staff Reports
With the potential loss of an estimated $2 million in state funds, the Patrick County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to table a vote on the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget following public comment at a June 14 meeting.
Schools Superintendent Dean Gilbert said the dip in state funds could impact K-3 class sizes, the division’s ability to help at-risk students as well as infrastructure and operations, and other areas.
Clyde DeLoach, vice chairman and of the Blue Ridge District, made the motion to delay the vote until the board’s June 28 meeting, which will allow more time for the county to discuss its options regarding the local required effort for schools in the upcoming year.
The board must approve a budget for the next fiscal year before June 30.
“There seems to be a sincere disagreement over what is the minimum required to fund the school budget. I would like to see us get some more information before we vote,” DeLoach said.
Gilbert said the division originally requested approximately $5.5 million from the county.
“That is due whether you spend it here or there, that is what is due from the locality as the required local match,” he said. “That includes all of the SOQ (Standards of Quality) accounts, funding accounts — such as basic aid, special ed — and it gets into your incentive accounts.”
The SOQ refers to the minimum education program that a school division must offer. State funding for the SOQ must be matched by the locality. The mandatory minimum local funding required is known as “required local effort.”
If the county fails to fund the school division according to the prescribed formula set forth in the law, the Board of Education “shall notify the Attorney General of such failure or refusal in writing signed by the president of the Board.”
Upon receipt of such notification, “it shall be the duty of the Attorney General to file in the circuit court for the county, city or town a petition for a writ of mandamus directing and requiring such governing body to make forthwith such appropriation as is required by law,” according to the Code of Virginia.
Supervisors previously discussed the possibility of decreasing the local match to $5 million, which they said at the time would still be $200,000 above the required local match.
Patrick County school representatives listen to remarks about the fiscal year 2021-2022 budget.
In comments submitted via email, Brandon Simmons, chairman of the Patrick County School Board, noted that the amount discussed by the board would “cover the SOQ funding and just very little more.”
The SOQ funding is calculated based on the number of schools the state deems is needed to serve a locality based on population and other factors. If Patrick County relied on that calculation, it would operate only 3.5 schools.
The rest of the funds are not included in the SOQ but require a local match from the board to receive any accompanying state funds.
“To meet the required local match, there would be a required increase to local funding of about $481,621,” Gilbert said. “If this is not met, then the school system could possibly lose the following state funding streams: at-risk money, $921,095; infrastructure and operations money, $679,674; the compensation supplement money, $395,031; k-3 class size reduction money, $297,374; and possibly pre-school education money, $450,795.”
Simmons said it would equate to a loss of more than $2 million in state funds.
“I’m just trying to help our school system receive not only the SOQ funding, which is nowhere near enough because our citizens prefer smaller community schools, but for the local match for other funding that the school system is in dire need of, Simmon’s said. “In closing, I ask when is asking for the minimum not good enough?”
Gilbert said that even though the school system will receive substantial federal funds from recently passed bills, “the state has certain rules in place that have to be followed.”
For example, he brought up the issue of supplanting which prevents state and local governments from reducing funding for an activity because federal funds are expected to be available for that same activity.
“Another rule of course is maintenance of effort,” Gilbert said. “This affects the overall budget, Title I, special education and the pre-k program.”
According to the Virginia Department of Education website, maintenance of effort is a regulation that requires school divisions to spend at least the same amount of local or local plus state dollars for a current school year on the delivery of special education and related services, as were spent from the same source for preceding fiscal year.
Walter Scott, vice-chairman of the Patrick County School Board, said there had been a breakdown in communication between the two governing boards.
“I want to start out by asking what happened,” Scott said. “Back on February 3, we had a group meeting with the Board of Supervisors and the school board. We agreed to work together and communicate. Why did we learn, as a board, about the budget cut to the schools of $481,000 which equals $3.2 million in real money, why did we learn about it in the paper?”
Scott noted the importance of schools in relation to other expenditures incurred by the county.
“I have a hard time understanding why we are taking our tax revenue and supporting a free place to dump our garbage, but we are not willing to support our kids,” Scott said.
It costs approximately $12,931 to educate a single student in Virginia, according to Scott.
“In Patrick County, what it costs taxpayers is $10,725,” he added. “That is $2,206 under the state average. That’s the bang you’re getting for the money you are spending on the schools.”
In comparison, Scott said that Patrick County students scored above the state average for test scores in 22 of the 30 categories.
In other matters, the board:
*Scheduled a public hearing for July 12 regarding the American Rescue Plan Act funds.
*Increased its tipping fees to $65 to offset fee increases received from Waste Management.
*Appropriated the yearly amount to the Department of Social Services.
*Heard an update that fireworks will be held Saturday, July 3.
*Heard from Lisa Price-Hughes, resident engineer for the Virginia Department of Transportation, on the six-year plan. The following roads are slated to be paved: Hayden Road, Dan Valley Farm Road, and half of Shortcut Drive.
*Awarded a contract to Vipperman Air Conditioning for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) maintenance.
