The Chesterfield County Public Schools (CCPS) budget is one of the first to be presented to the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors. But even the schools budget is dependent on some funding provided by the Virginia Commonwealth.
“The budget proposal takes advantage of Gov. Bob McDonnell’s offer of $2.9 million as an incentive to raise teacher pay,” said Chesterfield Schools Superintendent Marcus Newsome. “Under the governor’s proposal, Chesterfield County must provide $4.6 million before school system salaries can be increased for all employees. While our proposed budget still lacks $3.8 million in identified funding to balance expenditures, I am hopeful that the General Assembly and/or our county government will step in to provide the money needed to give our employees their first raise since 2009.”
Dr. Newsome said that expenditures for fiscal year 2014 is $533.9 million. The proposed school budget is only about $600,000 more than last year’s budget. The new budget which begins in July 2013 looks much better than the budget presented some years ago when the school system had to eliminate more than 500 full-time positions followed by two years of reduced salaries for remaining employees.
The Commonwealth’s budget remains somewhat challenged leaving Chesterfield school administration unsure of exactly how much the state contribution will be, although Newsome remains op