As the Caroline County School Board prepares its annual budget calendar, Chair Calvin Taylor anticipates additional support at the state level.
“We elected some people on Tuesday [Nov. 4] who said they’re going to be supportive of education,” Taylor said … “We need to hold them to that. Hopefully we get more and more people in legislative positions who are, quote, ‘friends of education.’’
Taylor was referring to the general election, which saw Democrat Abigail Spanberger win the governor’s race, and Spotsylvania School Board representative Nicole Cole knock off incumbent Del. Bobby Orrock (R-Woodford) for House District 66. Orrock represented Caroline and Spotsylvania in the House of Delegates for 35 years.
Still, the Caroline School Board will need support from the county board of supervisors in addition to the state.
“We have to educate our children just like everybody else educates their children, and we have to find a way to do it,” Taylor said. “We will never find that way unless we’re willing to sit down and talk about what the needs are. That’s what people in this county want us to do. They want us to come to the table and find a way to educate their children.
“They’re tired of the back and forth and the bickering and the ‘we don’t have.’ We have to find a way to support education in Caroline County just like they do in Stafford and Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania and Hanover, and the [94 other] counties across this state.”
During Monday’s meeting, the school division approved its budget calendar that lays out a timeframe to do just that.
The next steps are a school board budget workshop and final approval of the fiscal year 2027-31 Capital Improvement Plan budget on Dec. 8. The board will submit its CIP budget to the county administrator on Dec. 9, and Gov. Glenn Youngkin will release the proposed state budget on Dec. 15.
On Jan. 12, there will be updates on the workshop and the governor’s proposed budget as well as a public hearing on the FY27 budget. Later in the month, the school board is planning a joint work session with the board of supervisors to discuss the budget. The request to the board of supervisors for appropriation of the school budget is scheduled for May 12.
“Our children are the most important resource that we have, and, if we don’t take care of them, we haven’t seen bad times yet,” Taylor said. “We need to do what we need to do to provide the service that they need so they can be great people and keep this country moving forward.”
On Monday, the school board approved requesting the use of reversion funds from FY25 to pay for adding trailers to Lewis & Clark Elementary School in Ladysmith.
The school board also approved on first reading its FY27-31 CIP budget, with the second reading coming next month. A CIP committee made up of division personnel and stakeholders prioritized a list of 10 projects totaling more than $50 million with the most expensive item being a fourth elementary school that would hold up to 650 students and ease overcrowding at Bowling Green Elementary and Lewis & Clark.
Other items included elevator modernization at both Caroline Middle and Caroline High, making the athletic fields at the middle school compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, division-wide sidewalk improvements, eight replacement school buses and deferred maintenance from a 2024 facilities assessment, among other projects.
Michael Hubbard, the Bowling Green District representative on the school board, questioned whether the list is realistic given the county’s financial status. Supervisor Chris Caldwell said there may be grants to take care of some of the “low-hanging fruit” on the list.
“I’m just hoping we can come up with a priority list that’s doable because just giving it to the county and saying, ‘Hey, it’s up to you to get it done or to pay for it, and them coming back and saying, ‘it’s too much,’ where are we at the end of the day?” Hubbard said.
Superintendent Sarah Calveric and Reedy Church District representative JoWanda Rollins-Fells said the county is required to provide a needs-based budget. Calveric said presenting the needs in full eliminates the “guessing game” for the board of supervisors. She also encouraged the supervisors to have two-on-two meetings with the school board members instead of her and County Administrator Charles Culley having a one-on-one discussion.
Rollins-Fells said the school division’s strategic plan and CIP should be part of the county’s overall strategic plan. She said that while the list might seem overwhelming, it’s necessary.
“It’s ugly,” Rollins-Fells said. “It’s pulling the curtain back. It’s ripping up the rug, and all the dust is falling out. But this CIP is what we need, and we are charged with keeping up with it.”
