Nelson County School Board Update as of May 21,2025
At the May 8, 2025 School Board meeting, School Board member Janet Turner-Giles made the announcement that she is not running again for the North District. She has been a highly engaged School Board member for 12 years, holding both local and state leadership roles while in this position and the other school board members expressed their appreciation for her leadership after this announcement.
The state released its final budget for FY 2026 the week prior to May 8. In general, the state funding for K-12 public schools remained at the level approved by the General Assembly in February even after Governor Youngkins’ vetoes and amendments. The General Assembly budget was the basis for the School Board’s budget; therefore, during the budget update discussion led by Assistant Superintendent of Administration Shannon Irving and Superintendent Amanda Hester there was only a focus on uncertain federal and local funding.
The FY 2026 school budget is based on receiving the same level of funding from the federal government as received in FY 2025 for Title II (supporting effective instruction), Title III (Language instruction for English Learners) and Title IV (student support and academic enrichment). There is nation-wide uncertainty as to whether these Title programs will be supported partially or in full next fiscal year. Nelson County school staff have chosen to use the $132,000 received from these funds to mainly support instructional positions as they have in previous years - 0.5 FTE math coach, 0.5 FTE alternative education assistant, and 0.34 FTE In-School Suspension Coordinator. Fortunately, school staff have been told that the cafeteria program that allows Nelson County to feed all students free breakfasts and lunches is not in jeopardy for next year (but may be a concern for FY 2027). Likewise, federal funding for Title I (which pays for a reading specialist and instructional coach targeted for low income students at both elementary schools) and special education appears to be safe for FY 2026.
The County asked the School Board to find funding for one of the $150,000 school buses by adjusting their budget. With the uncertain federal funding, Dr. Hester expressed real concern that the School division may not be able to absorb the combined $282,000 funding uncertainties in a budget that has no built-in contingencies. Shannon Irving said that the budget is based on staffing needs and known expenses so that any changes to the budget now would have to come from turn-over savings (hiring someone new that is paid less than the person that left the position) or holding some vacancies open until funding becomes more certain.
Because of the need to release contracts before teachers left for the school year, the School Board approved the release of the SY 2025-2026 contracts at the salary scales created as part of the School Board approved FY 2026 budget. The School Board also approved bonuses of $1000 for every full-time staff member and $500 for all part-time to be distributed in June, based on newly appropriated state funding for this purpose subsidized by FY 2025 School operating fund turnover savings.
During the May 13, 2025 Board of Supervisors meeting, the County Administrator presented the School Board budget at the School Board approved level of $33,879,480 (which included local funding for all four school buses) during their County-wide budget presentation. This was followed by a public hearing where there were no comments about the Schools budget. However, a decision was made to have a follow-up BOS budget work session on May 16 at 1pm.
The May 16 work session focused on the school budget and was not video-taped and no school staff were present to answer questions. (An advertised joint board meeting had already been conducted on March 20, 2025 to discuss the school budget with both school and county administrative staff present to answer questions. However, not all BOS members were there.) The May 16 discussion focused on the school bus purchases (County or school fund, question about the $150,000/bus amount), why some new positions were created from unfilled vacancies this year and were being requested as permanent positions for FY 2026 (assistant principals), why the raises were not uniform or consistent [School presentation showed an increase of 3% for support stuff, targeted increases to the teacher scale to keep it competitive (with a 2.97% scale increase), admin staff receiving an average 2.61% increase], concern about the ongoing $72,000 annual cost for the advanced metal detector system, and whether the cafeteria fund was still self-supporting. The BOS members discussed the need to move the School Board offices out of the courthouse administrative building by next summer. Some were not willing to rubber stamp the school budget and scheduled another meeting at 10am on May 23 to continue discussing the School budget. The Board of Supervisors will formally appropriate the FY 2026 budget, including the Schools budget, on June 10.
Nelson County High School had a well-attended and beautiful outdoor graduation on May 16, 2025 at Memorial Stadium at the Sherman League Athletic Complex followed by a fireworks display and a long teacher congratulation/send-off line.