On Tuesday, the Stafford Board of Supervisors budgeted and appropriated state funding for the school division according to the School Board’s request — then revisited the decision and voted to keep back an additional $1.1 million.
The School Board met last week, after the General Assembly finalized the state budget at the end of June, to approve an amended school division budget that reflects an additional $8.8 million in state funding.
As an acknowledgment of how hard supervisors worked this budget season to fund the schools, the School Board agreed to reduce its local funding request by $1.3 million.
That’s the request that supervisors initially voted Tuesday to support. But after a discussion about authorizing a partially state-supported bonus for the county’s constitutional officers and their employees, the registrar’s office, members of the Electoral Board, and Department of Social Services employees, supervisors voted to reconsider that decision.
During the bonus discussion, supervisors said they were worried about morale among the county’s employees if some but not all were to receive the bonus.
“‘Overworked and underpaid’ is the motto of Stafford County,” Chair and George Washington representative Deuntay Diggs said.
Supervisors went into recess after the bonus discussion. After returning to open session, they returned to the school division’s budget and voted to keep back a total of $2.4 million — a motion that had been initially proposed by Rock Hill representative Crystal Vanuch.
Falmouth district representative Kecia Evans made the motion to recall the board’s initial vote on the school’s budget.
“I want to make this very, and I mean very, clear on why I’m calling this back,” Evans said. “It is because of bonuses, and I feel that the staff should get the bonuses. I’ve talked to School Board members, and they’ve said they can afford to give the $2.4 million back. I just want to be very clear on that: I’ve talked to my School Board members and this can be afforded.”
Diggs said he also talked to School Board members during the recess and heard the same thing.
The motion to keep back the $2.4 million from the school division was approved 4-to-3, with supervisors Darrell English, Tinesha Allen, and Maya Guy voting against it.
Regarding the bonuses for constitutional offices and others, supervisors voted to delay consideration until August, with the hope that, at that time, they’ll be able to look at extending the bonus to all county employees using some of the funding returned by the School Board.
The School Board will meet Tuesday for a work session and special called meeting to finalize the division’s budget.
