Tuesday night, the Roanoke City School Board voted unanimously to approve a preliminary budget for 2026-27 totaling about $269 million — $16 million lower than the division’s needs-based budget, with cuts planned for personnel and programs.
The budget adopted is not the final budget for fiscal year 2027, and does not yet detail those cuts. The division currently operates on a general fund budget of $272 million for 2025-26.
Roanoke City Public Schools did vote as a part of that budget to move forward with 2% raises for employees through a combination step and scale raise, which makes state funding available to the division that is currently written into the House of Delegates budget.
Raises were included in this preliminary budget so that the division can move forward with employee contracts sooner, RCPS spokesperson Claire Mitzel said on a phone call.
The division is budgeting using the more conservative Senate version of the state budget, estimating $2 million in additional funding for RCPS. The House budget would increase RCPS’s funding by an estimated $6.8 million.
Alan Seibert, constituent services and government relations officer with RCPS, said if the General Assembly holds true to the normal schedule, the House and Senate should reach a resolution by Thursday evening for a Saturday vote.
The budget approved Tuesday included a 10% increase in health benefits, and about a $3 million increase in funding for instruction, $9 million less than what instruction would cost in its needs-based budget.
The division also included a $1.3 million contingency fund after returning $21 million of its fund balance, or its “rainy day” funds, to the city.
Kathleen Jackson, chief financial officer with RCPS, said the budget will continue to be modified as state and city revenue projections come in, before final adoption in June. Her presentation stated budget updates will come throughout April and May as the budget progresses.
