Before approving the fiscal year (FY) 2024-25 budget, the Henry County Board of Supervisors denied a request from the school board to receive its funds in a lump sum instead of the traditional categorical form.
At its Tuesday meeting, the board approved a total county budget of $207,741,852, including $21,635,583 in county funds for the school division for its total budget of $72,670,916.
The real estate tax rate will remain at $0.55 per $100 of assessed value, with personal property and machinery and tools at $1.55 per $100. The motor vehicle license fee is $20.75 for cars, $12 for motorcycles, and $12 for trailers.
The budget includes $4,713,769 for general governmental administration costs and $4,031,343 for judicial administration. Public safety’s budget was $28,660,842, and Public Works received $5,126,205.
Health and Welfare services – like the local health department, group home services, Area Agency on Aging, and others – are allocated $979,966. Education services like community colleges received $62.414 and parks, recreation, and other cultural services received $3,046,665.
The budget allotted $2,693,765 to community development and $84,414,449 to nondepartmental services like employee benefits, contingency service, transfers to other funds, and the school capital – one percent sales tax.
Other funds include $11,222,203 to the Henry-Martinsville Social Services, $14,538,800 to the self-insurance fund, $2,850,125 to the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), $6,465,965 to the Children’s Services Act (CSA) fund.
In an April 18 letter from attorney Michael Gardner, of Woods Rogers Vandeventer Blacks PLC, the school board formally requested the board of supervisors consider transitioning the funding of the school board’s annual operating budget from an allocation by category to lump sum funding.
At the meeting, Garrett Dillard, of the Iriswood District, asked County Administrator Dale Wagoner and Gardner to cite some of the pros and cons of the proposed funding change before a decision was made.
Wagoner said he was not familiar, nor does he have experience, with anything besides categorical funding.
“Without adequate time to do my research, I can’t deliberate the pros and cons of the practice of lump sum versus categorical. I have some hypotheticals. I think I know, but I’ve not done my research prior to this meeting,” he said.
Gardner said the Code of Virginia gives boards of supervisors the option to choose the funding option.
“For the school board, this approach (of lump sum funding) is something that we would like to try. I would like to emphasis this is not a one time you vote and then it will be this way forever. We can try this for a year,” he said.
Gardner said one advantage the school board sees is the budget is a little tighter this year, and if there’s an issue that requires funding to be moved across classifications, it cannot be done without the approval of the board of supervisors if its funded categorical.
“For instance, the maintenance budget’s going to be pretty tight this year from what I understand. If there were to be a significant maintenance issue that requires more funding than what’s in the maintenance budget, or a series of them, we can’t even begin to fix it unless we get your permission to do so by pulling money from other classifications,” he said.
Gardner said lump sum funding would allow flexibility for the school board to respond to problems quickly.
“One of the aspects that I think is important to convey is we still have to be fully transparent. We can’t spend more than what you have authorized,” he said.
The superintendent would still have to provide a detailed estimate across the categories under the Code of Virginia. Expenditures would still have to be posted and could be reviewed by the board of supervisors, he said.
“It’s all still out there. This is a little bit more simply about giving the school board the tools to be flexible and address needs as they arise, especially where the money is a little bit tighter and we may be looking at having to dig into certain classifications to fund others, depending on what circumstances arise,” he said.
A potential con to the proposal, Gardner said, is the county losing the opportunity to deny the school board the ability the move funds around classifications in the midst of the year if the school board had a history of asking for changes to classifications or moving funds to different classifications.
“My understanding is that hasn’t been the history of the interactions between the school board and the board of supervisors in categorical funding. But that is the con. You lose a degree of immediacy if you don’t like what we’re asking for you to do,” he said.
Jim Adams, chairman and of the Blackberry District, asked if there was ever a time when the board didn’t transfer requested funds through the proper channels.
In his research, Gardner said he did not have any citable examples.
“The concern is more, I think, the flexibility and timing aspect of it,” he said.
Joe Bryant, vice-chairman and of the Collinsville District, said he didn’t know of a time the supervisors failed to fund anything the school board requested.
“Our budget is uncertain right now, especially when it comes to schools. We just don’t know exactly what we’re going to get,” he said, adding a budget adjustment is likely once the state approves its budget.
Bryant said Tuesday was the first time he’d seen the request. “I’ve had no time to do any background research on lump sum funding,” he said.
Dillard asked if this issue could be revisited later once a decision is made.
County Attorney Goerge Lyle said he didn’t see why the decision couldn’t be amended at a later date.
“During the year, it might be logistically difficult, but I don’t think there’s a legal obstacle to amending the budget in any of the ways,” he said.
Travis Puritt, of the Ridgeway District, asked what other localities use lump sum funding.
Gardner said he believes Danville and Richmond use lump sum funding, while Pittsylvania County and Roanoke use categorical fundings.
Henry County Assistant Superintendent of Operations and Administrative Services Dr. Benjamin Boone said categories in a lump sum budget.
“You still have the instructional budget, a maintenance budget, a technology budget, but the lump sum funding, it just enables us to move categories. The categories aren’t going anywhere. It will all still be transparent, it’s on all of our board meeting documents,” he said.
“I am listening, and I am glad that the communication is opening and good communication with the board of supervisors and the school board. Again, I just want to say that I am listening and looking for more information,” Pam Cobler, of the Reed Creek District, said.
Debra Buchanan, of the Horsepasture District, said she believes being able to see the categorical funding and the transfer of money gives the public a little bit of an idea of where things are being moved and how.
“It’s not to say that the school board is going to move anything around with lump sum that we don’t agree with or have an opportunity to, but I think that with categorical it gives us a little bit more transparency,” she said.
Schools superintendent Dr. Amy Blake-Lewis said the county can always see how the school board moves money as it transacts all of its business in MUNIS, the same platform used by the county.
“While we can’t see what the county does and how you move money, you are always able to see how we move money. So, there is transparency there,” Blake-Lewis said. “As to the question of the transparency also, anytime we would move money it would be publicized as part of our monthly board meeting, so the transparency is still going to be there.”
Blake-Lewis said the school board is simply asking for permission to receive its funds as a lump sum, which would give the school board the authority and power to move it around as “we see fit in terms of a timeframe.”
In other matters, the board:
*Voted against a motion 2-4 made by Cobler to fund a request by Carlisle School for $20,000 to cover 40 percent, or 120 students who live in the county, with the funds used to help cover the cost of a School Resource Officer (SRO).
*Approved the items of consent.
*Approved a proclamation declaring May 11-17 as National Peace Officers Memorial Week.
*Heard the monthly delinquent tax collection efforts report.
*Heard an update from the Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corp.
*Accepted a resolution honoring the Carlisle School girls’ basketball team for their second consecutive state championship.
*Approved the proposed Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) secondary road plan.
*Approved a resolution recognizing the 150th anniversary of Mayo Missionary Baptist Church.
*Appropriated an additional $4,279 to the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office for the purchase of Adobe software and office equipment, using state asset forfeiture funds.
*Appropriated an additional $12,000 received from the Harvest Foundation and $10,513 from the board’s contingency fund to buy an entrance gate for the Monogram Foods Smith River Sports Complex.
*Awarded a $74,961 contract to Carolina Recording Systems to replace the 911 recording system, with funds from a Virginia Department of Emergency Management grant and the FY24 capital improvement program.
*Approved an additional $250,000 to the School Nutrition budget for the Summer Food Services Program. Funding for this program is provided in the form of a reimbursement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
*Approved the transfer of $1,495,000 from FY24 funds to purchase various capital items.
*Approved an additional $215,000 to address unsafe structures and property clean-up throughout the county. These funds were received as reimbursement from the demolition of unsafe structures, and from funds in excess of taxes on property sales.
*Approved a request to rezone approximately 1.68-acres in the Blackberry District for the applicant to place a double-wide manufactured home on the property.
*Approved a request to rezone approximately 0.344-acres in the Blackberry District for the applicant to place a manufactured home on the property.
*Approved a request to rezone approximately 0.366-acres in the Horsepasture District for the applicant to place an office on the property.
*Approved a request to rezone approximately 0.989-acres in the Iriswood District for the applicant to sell the property for the placement of a double-wide manufactured home.
*Reappointed Paul Kennedy and Lillian Holland to the Henry-Martinsville Social Services Board for four-year terms scheduled to expire on May 31, 2028.
