BY TED SHOCKLEY, Eastern Shore Post —
Accomack County’s public school system has proposed a $68.8 million operations budget for fiscal year 2025 that includes a 5% percent pay increase for all employees.
The positive for the school system is that Accomack County has proposed is increasing its annual contribution by $1.1 million.
“This is very, very good news,” Beth Onley, chief of operations for Accomack County Public Schools, told the school board on Tuesday, Feb. 6, during a meeting at Metompkin Elementary School.
The bad news, however, is that the school board’s spending plan is $1.2 million more than anticipated revenues.
Unless unexpected state money fills the gap — or the board of supervisors, which has three new members, decides to earmark more money for education — the school system will have to pare its list of proposals.
The schools’ budget proposal also includes a $150,000 increase in the employer’s contribution toward health insurance, new mathematics textbooks, and hiring retired school administrators as part-time assistant principals at Metompkin Elementary and Chincoteague Elementary schools.
The budget includes a new early reading specialist position, a new guidance secretary for Chincoteague Combined School, and two athletic trainers.
The school budget also earmarks $221,000 to implement pay increases associated with a forthcoming classification and compensation study.
In a joint written statement, school board Chair Janet Martin-Turner and Superintendent Rhonda Hall said the budget proposal is not extravagant.
“This budget is being presented with the hope that our citizens understand that we are not asking for the moon,” they wrote.
During a public hearing, Connie Burford, of Chincoteague, said more staffing is needed in grades with younger children.
She also wondered aloud about a $200,000 reduction in special-education funding, while other departments had “massive increases.”
Coleby Burford, who is Burford’s daughter and who identified herself as a teacher in the county, also advocated for additional personnel in primary grades because of “behavioral concerns and academic concerns.”
“I can’t keep my eyes on 20 kids by myself,” she said, after alluding to the unanticipated actions of early learners.
Newly elected school board member Stefanie Jackson criticized the timing of the budget process, saying the school board had to vote to hold a public hearing on the spending plan “within minutes of receiving the document.”
She apologized that there was no public input earlier in the process of compiling the proposal, saying, “That is unacceptable to me.”
She called is an “excessively strict budget timeline that we’re working under,” which she said is “not normal.”
The timeline inhibits “meaningful” public input, she said.
The ability for the public to comment on the draft budget will help to “ensure we are spending the taxpayers’ money responsibly,” she said.
School board member Stefanie Jackson is a staff writer for the Eastern Shore Post. She has no input in the Post’s coverage of Accomack County Public Schools.
