School Bd. Waits On State, Cancels Another Budget Meeting

By WYDaily Staff Thursday, February 25, 2010

Count another cancellation due to uncertain state funding for school divisions.

The Williamsburg/James City County School Board was to have met tonight to discuss the 2010-11 budget, but a lack of solid information from the state has canceled it, school board president Jim Nickols said. The potential range of cuts is so large WJCC has decided to wait to talk about next year's cuts until the General Assembly is closer to a decision.

"With so much variance among the proposed cuts to K-12 education in the General Assembly, it is difficult for the administration and the School Board to calculate what the impact will be upon the school division, and most importantly, W-JCC employees,” Nickols said. “In order to have a meaningful discussion, I believe it was essential to have a substantive discussion on the budget. Until the General Assembly comes to an agreement on the funding cuts to K-12 education, I decided, in consultation with board members, to wait until Wednesday, March 10. By then, the dust may have settled around the budget and allow the Board to review and amend W-JCC's budget as appropriate in order to insure our core mission of providing a quality education for all our children."

Superintendent Gary Mathews is still scheduled to present a Superintendent’s proposed budget at a meeting scheduled for Wednesday, March 10, at 5:30 p.m. in the Warhill High School auditorium.

Other meetings on the schedule include:

• March 16: at 9 a.m. the board will meet with city and county officials, including chief financial officers, to go over the budget. Later that day, at 7 p.m., the school board will conduct a work session at the county complex.

• March 23: at 5:30 p.m. the school board will hold a special meeting on the budget in council chambers at the Stryker Building. Immediately after the special meeting the board is expected to vote on the budget.