Nelson school division expecting salary, utilities cost increases in FY '24 budget

Nelson County Public Schools administrators have prepared a $40 million budget for fiscal year 2024 that incorporates anticipated increases to the division's personnel, health insurance and utilities costs.

The division's 2024 draft budget requires an additional $1.3 million from the county to balance, beyond the $17.1 million the county contributed to NCPS in fiscal year 2023.

Nelson County School Board members looked at budget elements in greater detail, and discussed continuing challenges facing the division, at a Jan. 26 work session.

The biennium budget Virginia's General Assembly approved last year included a 5% salary increase for all SOQ, or Standards of Quality-funded, positions for two years. With the additional $1.5 million the Nelson County Board of Supervisors in fiscal year 2023, NCPS administration elected to establish a $15 hourly minimum wage for all employees and make adjustments to support staff and teacher salary scales, creating a 0.5% raise between seniority steps to reward employees every year they stay with the division.

The anticipated 5% salary increase for employees on top of last year's 5% increase, plus newly integrated seniority step increases, have contributed to the budget increase. Gov. Glenn Youngkin's proposed budget also includes a 1% retention bonus for all SOQ-funded positions, which NCPS Superintendent for Instruction Shannon Irvin said she spread out among all employees as a $300 bonus to be awarded in August. She also included a new stipend in the budget, equivalent to half a degree supplement, for instructional assistants who have passed the paraprofessional assessment.

The budget is built on a projected enrollment of 1,396 students, down from 1,418 in fiscal year 2023. It reflects a downward trend in enrollment that Irvin said has made its way from the elementary schools to the middle and high schools, as smaller cohorts move up grades. Declining enrollment has an impact on state funding, as a change in one student equates to a $4,447 loss in state revenue, and makes it more difficult to offer a diversified course load, according to Irvin.

The division's special education student enrollment has remained fairly constant over the last decade, however. School board member George Cheape pointed out that with declining overall enrollment, this population has become a greater percentage of the student body. That trend has contributed to the budget increase, Cheape said, because these students cost the division more to educate.

Irvin explained she included an estimated 10% increase in the division's health insurance rates and allowed for increased electricity and propane costs. NCPS has also requested the addition of an in-school suspension assistant at the middle school and the reinstatement of an assistant principal position — currently Tye River Elementary School and Rockfish River Elementary School share one assistant principal.

"After being in the schools last week during the teacher awards and being in some classrooms, I see the need for the in-school suspension person," School Board member Ceaser Perkins said.

Perkins and board chair Shannon Powell recently visited each school to award teachers of the year.

"There's a ton of stuff that goes into that classroom — teachers have different methods of engaging their students and it was good to see that." he added.