The Henry County School Board approved amendments to its fiscal year 2027 budget Tuesday, July 14, to account for additional state funding, employee raises approved by the General Assembly and other funding adjustments.
Assistant Superintendent of Operations and Administrative Services Dr. Ben Boone said the amendments reflect changes made by the General Assembly in late June.
“As compared to the Governor’s introduced budget, there is an increase in state revenue of $2,074,000. There’s a total increase to the local share as compared to the Governor’s budget of $615,000,” he said.
However, because of declining Average Daily Membership, Boone said the division expects to receive only about $100,000 more in state revenue than was included in last year’s budget.
“Since the last budget that was approved for the last school year, we lost about 250 students,” he said.
One of the largest budget adjustments is related to the 4% salary increases approved by the General Assembly, along with additional Standards of Quality-funded positions.
Boone said the salary increase will result in about a 1.5% additional increase for employees based on contracts issued in May, when the division approved approximately 2.5% salary increases.
“The four percent salary increase results in approximate costs of $2.8 million for our division,” Boone said.
Because the division will receive only about $100,000 more in state revenue, Boone said the remaining cost of the salary increases will be absorbed by the school system.
He noted that the 4% increase will not appear as a flat percentage increase for all employee groups because of differences in the division’s compensation structure.
“Say we do have adjustments for each scale, for the teacher scale it’s a three percent increase to the scale plus a STEP which is going to equal out to four percent. For classified employees, it’s a three-and-a-half percent increase to the scale plus a STEP which equals four percent. It’s a four percent increase overall for professional and administrative employees, and cafeteria, bus drivers, and aides will also see a four percent increase for their salaries,” Boone said.
Other budget adjustments include increases in at-risk funding, a $481,000 increase to special education add-ons, a $435,000 increase for infrastructure and operations for pupil allocation, and additional sales tax revenue.
“For the Standards of Quality, there was an increase last year from the state government, but overall when you’re looking at all the categories that we’re funded by the state government, we’re only seeing about an increase of $104,000 in state revenue,” Boone said.
He said the division received $83.46 million in state revenue last year and will receive $83.564 million next year.
Boone said the school division is receiving about $1.5 million more from local government because of an increase in the Local Composite Index.
“The Local Composite Index, or in other words the local appropriating body’s ability to fund public education, has increased by about one-and-a-half cents per dollar. So that went from 0.2247 to 0.388, and the Virginia Department of Education bases that on real estate property value, also gross income and tax revenue,” he said.
On the expenditure side, Boone said instruction received a $950,000 increase, pupil transportation increased by $170,000, and administration, attendance and health categories saw smaller increases.
Operations and maintenance increased by about $80,000, facilities decreased by about $50,000, debt services declined by $285,000 and technology increased by $80,000.
“I want to point out that all of those increases you all are looking at is pretty much the increase for that four percent raise,” Boone said.
In other matters, the board:
Approved the consent agenda.
Authorized Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Lisa Millner to sign Virginia Department of Education correspondence, reports, documents, requisitions and other financial correspondence in the superintendent’s absence from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027.
Awarded a bid for replacement of the main switchgear at Fieldale-Collinsville Middle School and Laurel Park Middle School to Amplex of Hillsville. The estimated cost is $838,000, funded through the 1% sales tax.
Accepted the FY27 School Security Officer New Positions Grant.
Heard the superintendent’s report.
Heard committee reports.
Approved the personnel report and addendum.
Cherie Whitlow attended the meeting virtually.
