The Roanoke School Board unanimously approved its fiscal year 2027 budget on Tuesday evening, after $14 million in expected cuts were made. Additional amendments are likely to be made once the state finalizes its budget.
The state budget must be finalized by July 1.
The $308 million city school budget includes $14 million in cuts in order to balance the budget. The general fund budget, or operating budget, totals about $270 million, and does not include food services, capital and grants.
For the current year, the Roanoke City Council allowed the school board to use $10 million of its fund balance, or excess funds, in order to avoid cuts in fiscal year 2026. The city council voted in January on a new funding policy — the third change to that policy in two years — that guides how the city funds its schools and requires the school division to return any excess funds to the city at the end of the year.
“We don’t have a cushion,” Superintendent Verletta White said during Tuesday’s meeting. “If something were to come up, we would have to go to the city and request those funds.”
The division will set aside $1.3 million, or 0.5% of its total budget, as a contingency budget to be used for unexpected needs.
White said Tuesday that under the new funding policy, the division is projected to receive about $40 million less over the next five years than it would have under the original policy, through which the city shared 40% of its revenue with the schools. That policy had been in place since 2011.
More than $11 million in personnel cuts were made in the newly approved budget — about 160 positions were cut across the board through a reduction in force that was announced at the end of March, and 55 employees were placed on a one-week furlough.
Personnel cuts extended to the central office — the division will not fill the position for chief of human resources, and at least 24 other administrative positions, White said.
Reductions in middle school teaching positions were made through a change in the block schedules at two of the middle schools, resulting in all five middle schools operating on a 5-day period block schedule.
The remaining $3 million in cuts were made through programmatic and operational cost reductions.
The school system will raise employee salaries by an average of 2% in the upcoming year.
The division will also reduce the PLATO Elementary Gifted Program from Grades 3-5 centered at two elementary schools, to Grades 4-5, consolidated at one elementary school. The budget states that transportation will be provided to gifted students who need it.
The school board had discussed, and received a few million dollars from the city council, for learning cottages at the city’s two high schools, to address overcrowding in the short term. However, due to long term costs, the division will not move forward with the learning cottages.
The three-year-old Virginia Preschool Initiative classes will be reduced from nine classrooms to three — which the budget states will reduce both positions and free up bus routes previously saved for preschool children.
Activity buses, or late buses home from school, will only be available moving forward during the spring sports season, and only from Monday through Thursday. This will not impact buses to and from athletic competitions. This is expected to cut about $230,000 from the budget.
Even with many transportation cuts, the budget for transportation will increase by over $700,000 in the upcoming year, due to cost hikes for contracted services and the bus fuel budget increasing by 41% due to high gas prices.
Other cuts the board approved include: a $200,000 decrease in the technology budget, cuts to student testing, a $600,000 reduction in the debt service budget, a reduction in grass mowing frequency, and postponements of improvements to athletic facilities.
“It has felt like all we’ve talked about is money, but we look forward to getting back to talking more about the work of making sure that our students are getting a high quality education,” board Chairwoman Franny Apel said.
Vice Chairman Michael Cherry spoke about what he’s learned during a challenging process.
“I think that’s been super important during this budget season, as we continue to navigate through the changes, that we continue to be transparent,” he said. “Personally, I think that is my biggest preference through this budget season, that the more the community knows, the less they ask.”
