Press Rewind podcast
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The week’s top stories
-Spotsylvania County School Board members were talking money last week. They unanimously endorsed Superintendent Clint Mitchell’s proposed $547.6 million budget for the next fiscal year, but concerns were raised about salaries for administrators and central office staff. Spotsylvania’s first-year principals earn $19,000 more than their counterparts in Stafford County. But Stafford’s veteran teachers and principals earn $19,000 more per year than experienced educators in Spotsylvania. Taft Coghill Jr. has the story.
-Spotsylvania County Administrator Ed Petrovich’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year is $5.8 million short of providing enough money to cover schools Superintendent Clint Mitchell’s education spending plan. But the funding gap is significantly less than what Mitchell was expecting, a $14.6 million hole. Spotsylvania’s top educator said he appreciates the county government’s effort to fund the school division, and he hopes the remainder of the gap will be covered by state monies, Coghill reports.
-Spotsylvania County Commissioner of the Revenue Deborah Fisher Williams died last week. She was 74. Her career spanned nearly 40 years, including three decades as commissioner. She began her career in Spotsylvania as a county employee, and in 1995, she was selected to fill the unexpired commissioner term of her mother-in-law, Mary B. Williams, Coghill writes.
-Fredericksburg schools Superintendent Marci Catlett last week presented a $68.4 million budget for the next fiscal year that includes a 7% teacher pay raise and the addition of the equivalent of 15 full-time jobs. The spending plan also adjusts the nurse salary scale and the athletic stipend scale, and adds a “safe driving bonus” for transportation employees, Joey LoMonaco reports.
-Micah Ecumenical Ministries’ Jeremiah Community has its biggest donation to date: $2.9 million in federal funding. The community is planned as a supportive housing neighborhood for the chronically homeless, and it is to be built on 31 acres off Fall Hill Avenue in Fredericksburg. The federal funding was part of more than $12 million that is coming to pay — or help pay — for projects in the region as part of the recent appropriations bill President Donald Trump signed into law.
Go figures (numbers in the news)
199 — That’s the number of homes in a residential project proposed at the current site of the Greenbrier Shopping Center on Plank Road in Fredericksburg. Bill Freehling has more details on this story and other business news in Biz Beat Roundup.
What they’re saying
“It’s like I want to carry my flag right now — like the big one — and just like have it with me as I’m coming to work. Because that’s how proud I feel.” -Isha Renta Lopez, who teaches Puerto Rican dance traditions for Semilla Cultural. A native of Puerto Rico, she spoke to Joey LoMonaco about Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show. The story was in Free Time, our weekly arts and entertainment newsletter.
Pressing on (a look at the week ahead)
-Stafford County Administrator Bill Ashton is scheduled to present his budget for the next fiscal year Tuesday, and we’ll be there for the announcement.
Sunday read
-Here’s a look at what a proposed redrawing of Virginia’s congressional district boundaries could mean for the Fredericksburg area.
