The Henry County School Board heard an update on a potential fiscal year (FY) 2024-2025 budget at its January 18 meeting.
Assistant Superintendent of Operations and Administrative Services Dr. Benjamin Boone said Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed FY25 budget introduced a one percent bonus for employees in FY 25 and a two percent salary increase in FY26.
“This is the Governor’s proposed budget that has to go through the General Assembly. So, hopefully we’re going to see an increase in terms of funding from the state for salaries for teachers and staff,” he said.
Boone said the Governor’s proposed budget introduced increases in Basic Aid and Standards of Quality and reductions in Incentive Programs, State Sales Tax Revenues, and Lottery Funded Programs.
“Overall, for our Standards of Quality programs, the Governor’s proposed budget would increase that overall category by about $8.4 million, and most of that is in Basic Aid,” he said.
Boone said Basic Aid funds a lot of the division’s instructional positions, different maintenance staff positions, transportation.
“There is a reduction in Sales Tax from the state and the other reduction from this category would be in summer school. But a lot of that is because of the ALL IN funding that we’re going to be receiving,” he said.
For Incentive and Categorical Programs, Boone said there’s going to be a decrease of $9.5 million from the state government.
“A big reason for the $9.5 decrease is because the ALL IN funding is not included in that. For our budget though, we took that out separately like we do our ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) grants,” he said. “We were thinking ahead, and we didn’t budget for that All in money within our hard operating budget.”
Boone said the division knew it was a one-time funding, and all of that funding will go to FY26.
For Categorical Programs, Boone said there’s a decrease of about $12,000.
“A lot of this is in our homebound instruction category. We’re trying to bring kids into the schools as much as possible. So, we report those numbers to the state, and the numbers we reported were less than the previous year,” he said.
Boone said there’s a state decrease of about $900,000 for the Lottery Funded Programs.
“A lot of this would be in the at-risk category. Then in our Special Education Regional Tuition those numbers went down a little bit,” he said.
In comparison, Boone said for FY24 the state funds the division at $70,449,000. For FY25, it would be around $72,670,000.
The local share in FY24 was $16,297,000 with the projected local share in FY25 being around $18.3 million.
“If you look at our overall budget being a $100 million, over 60 percent of that goes towards salaries. So, the majority of our budget is encompassed by salaries,” he said.
Boone said the budget priorities for FY25 include Step/salary increases for all full-time licensed staff, classified positions, bus drivers and bus aides, and administrative positions.
Boone said a percentage cannot be given at this point because the division doesn’t have a concrete number from the state government yet.
“We want everybody to know we are looking at salary increases on top of what the governor’s proposing,” he said. “We want to try to do the best we can, and I hope everybody knows that in past years salaries have increased and that was because the board took that as a priority.”
The board received input from several county residents as to what should be the board’s budget priorities for the upcoming fiscal year.
Kevin Underwood, of the Reed Creek District and Bassett High School Coach of track, in-door track, and cross country, said Bassett needs a new rubber track.
“I hear a lot of compliments when we go other places that we do a whole lot with a lot less, which I can attest to that,” he said.
Underwood said he is not proud of the track at Bassett because it’s getting to the point that it’s unsafe and unusable.
“The age of it is, we’re thinking around 30-years-old. They tarred it in 2005 when they repainted it. It’s been so long now the old paint has gone up. You can see the old paint from the previous time, so the lines are not correct,” he said.
Sienna Bailey, of Collinsville, also supports the rubber track. She said American Athletic Track and Turf states that on average an outdoor track should be replaced every eight to 15 years.
“We’ve exceeded that average immensely. There are numerous cracks in our track and bits breaking off of it,” she said.
Bailey told the board to think about the effects the climate has had on the track during its more than 20 years of blazing hot summer sun and freezing winters.
“There are no doubts that it’s unsafe for our athletes,” she said. “Advanced Orthopedic Center states that asphalt can aggravate the shins more and cause stress fractures. To go into more depth about what they’re saying, running on asphalt puts strain on the runner’s body such as their feet, knees, and hips.”
Michael Foley, of Collinsville, said a new rubber track is needed because it provides the athletes more support for their body than asphalt.
“According to Abacus Sports, an athletic floor installer, running on synthetic rubber tracks is significantly more forgiving on your muscle and joints. To add on what Abacus says, a rubber track would result in a lower chance of injuries and allow a steadier transition when coming back from injuries,” he said.
Foley said a synthetic rubber track is also extremely low maintenance as an asphalt track requires more small repairs over time like filling holes and repainting lines.
“This ends up costing more in the long run, whereas a rubber one is a one-time investment,” he said.
Foley said Abacus Sports states synthetic rubber tracks are also more durable and can last 20 years or more.
