York SB Approves Amended Budget, Bonuses

By Amber Lester Kennedy Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The York County School Board approved its amended budget and authorized one-time bonuses for eligible employees at a special meeting Tuesday.

The board first approved its budget in March, but the Board of Supervisors denied its request for level funding from county government. The county government decided to trim the schools’ budget by $337,000, which sent the administration back to the drawing board.

The budget approved on Tuesday was only reduced by $328,425, however. Chief Financial Officer Dennis Jarrett said the cost of shared groundskeeping services with the county came in under budget.

The school division had originally planned to offer a step pay increase for all eligible employees at a cost of $1.2 million, made possible by $700,444 in extra state funding and savings of $569,718 originally budgeted for contributions to the Virginia Retirement System. But the Board of Supervisors objected to the plan to spend additional one-time revenue on a recurring cost, and the reduced local funding forced the administration to abandon the plan to offer a step pay increase.

The budget process was further complicated with the addition of a new state-mandated expenditure. School divisions will no longer be able to require students to pay for Advanced Placement exams as a pre-requisite for earning class credit. To pay for tests, the division had to find another $175,000 in the budget.

Despite the budget pressures, the division will still be able to offer bonuses to full-time permanent staff and pro-rated for part-time permanent staff. The bonuses require the division to allocate its remaining $472,938 from the Federal Jobs Fund, which was used to give $350 bonuses at the end of 2010.

Faced with five options, varying from a flat rate bonus to bonuses based on percentages of salaries, the board settled on a sixth option: They will offer a bonus of $400 or 1.68 percent of the base salary, whichever is higher, to eligible staff. After considering several different options for 30 minutes, school board member Barbara Haywood admitted she’d rather offer a step increase.

“Usually, after I’ve really struggled, I’m happy with the decision. But this is not where I want to be, it’s where I’m forced to be,” she said. “I feel like I’ve got no choice.”

Fellow board members echoed her lament, but Board Chair Mark Medford said they wouldn’t forget about the step pay increase. “I think as we leave today, we’ll have the focus of a step increase on our radar next year,” he said.