The city’s proposed spending plan included a $1.8 million increase in funding from fiscal 2024 for Manassas City Public Schools for a total of $62.01 million in local contributions for operational support, with an additional $6.38 million to be allocated toward debt services.
The school’s budget is approved as part of the city’s overall spending plan. The city budget’s primary revenue source, making up 34%, comes from property taxes. Under Keen’s proposal, the average homeowners’ tax bill is expected to increase by $266.
The new fiscal year begins July 1. A public hearing regarding the budget will be held at the April 22 council meeting. Final approval is slated for June 10.
The school system’s budget is counting on about $8.4 million in increased revenue, which includes All In Virginia funding and the $1.5 million from the council.
The All In funding provided by the state is part of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s effort to increase literacy and combat both pandemic learning loss and chronic absenteeism. One requirement of the funding is that a majority of the funds are to be spent on high-intensity or high-dosage tutoring.
The spending plan allocates an additional $5.4 million for staff compensation, $1 million for employer health insurance rate, $239,000 for additional strategic investments beyond compensation and $55,000 for supplemental pay adjustments for coaches and extra duty positions.
The proposed budget outlines a minimum of 6% increase for all eligible teachers effective July 1, on top of the 4% increases effective Jan. 1. As a result, teacher salaries as of July 1 would be over 10% higher than they were a year earlier.
There will be a 6% minimum increase for all other eligible staff effective July 1 of this year; employee salaries as of July 1 will be over 9% higher than they were last year.
During the April 3 meeting, Councilmember Ralph Smith questioned if the amount of money the school division was asking for was enough to achieve its stated goals. Superintendent Kevin Newman responded that ultimately the school division is planning to do the best it can with what it receives.
“We’re going to take what you give us and we’re going to make the best of it to do the best for our students,” Newman said.
The council appeared supportive of the budget, with few questions from council members during the joint meeting, apart from some logistical questions from Councilmember Tom Osina about the process of crafting the budget and the Capital Improvement Plan.
Virginia law mandates that the superintendent of each school division prepare a balanced budget every year, which is to be presented first to the local School Board and then to the local governing body for approval.
According to the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, Virginia school divisions receive less funding per student than the 50-state average.
The national average state and local per pupil funding amount during the 2020-2021 school year was $15,313, Virginia was 25th with $14,003 per pupil. Compared to surrounding states for the same school year, Maryland’s was $18,357, West Virginia’s was $13,151 and North Carolina’s was $10,135.
The revenue for the Manassas budget comes from state aid, 49%; the city, 43%; sales taxes, 7%; other sources, 1%. The largest bulk of the revenue will be put toward instruction, requiring over 75% of the funds. Other expenditures include:
- Maintenance and operations, 7.3%
- Administration and health, 6.7%
- Technology, 5.6%
- Transportation, 4.2%
- Facilities, 0.5%
- Contingency, 0.5%
