JONESVILLE, Va. — While school systems in Tennessee and Kentucky have seen major cuts and little hope of a recovery in the coming budget, Virginia schools have had a little better luck. Their budget outlook for the coming years is looking better than previously predicted.
“It’s a lot better picture than it was,” said Lee County Schools Superintendent Fred Marion. “We’re going to get some money — don’t know the details yet.”
However, Marion said earlier this month that he had gotten some concrete figures of money Lee Co. would receive from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
According to Virginia Governor Tim Kaine’s website, Virginia school systems will receive approximately $730.4 million in K-12 education allocations in fiscal stabilization funds which will be distributed to Virginia school divisions by formula based on the federal law. The Commonwealth is also receiving $281.4 million in funding for special education.
Marion said that he had heard Lee Co. would receive $788,000 in additional Title I money and $562,000 in Special Education and IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) money.
Marion said that the school system will also receive $1,988,000 for construction funding, adding, “we don’t know the details yet.”
Coming into the 2009-10 budget year, the Lee Co. School System, like many schools, was facing a considerable budget crunch.
“We were facing a shortfall of $1.5 million,” said Marion. And with the stimulus money, “that is the first priority, to plug that gap... Cutting personnel would be the very last resort. We would cut everything before we do anything with personnel.” He added that the school system would cut maintenance or the purchase of buses before cutting teacher positions.
The Virginia Education Association (VEA) also looked optimistic about the stimulus funds. “Because of the federal stimulus package, the outlook for VEA members is not nearly as cheerless as it was just a month ago,” said a March report from VEA to VEA members.
“The General Assembly’s budget is still significantly below the original adopted budget for 2009-10. The February dollars are still $272.5 million less than the budget adopted in March of 2007 for 2009-10. The per pupil reduction is $20 or 4 percent. The reduction in the current year (2008-09) is $77 per pupil from the adopted budget approved last May.”
The funding for Lee County in the 2008-09 budget year was $30,719,695. The 2009-10 budget year will see a drop of $492,009 for a budget of $30,227,686.
Marion said that the Va. House of Delegates would go back into a veto session in April to finalize the budget.
Stephen Woodward is a Staff Writer for the Middlesboro Daily News. He may be contacted at swoodward@middlesborodailynews.com.
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