With so many complicated state budget proposals circulating in Richmond, Spotsylvania County School Board Chairman Gil Seaux likened them to scrambled eggs.
If that's the case, whatever kind of egg it might represent, School Superintendent Jerry Hill said he'd opt for an order of the Senate's version.
Hill said the worst option--perhaps the rotten egg--would be Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposal. Under it, Spotsylvania schools stand to lose about another $6 million in state funding.
That deep a cut, on top of roughly $15 million in cuts already incorporated into the fiscal 2011 budget approved by the School Board on Feb. 15, would make it hard to avoid division-wide furloughs, Hill said yesterday.
"Obviously, we're crossing our fingers and we're hoping we can stop this with the $15 million [already cut]," he said.
"We don't want to do furloughs. We don't want to do more staff cuts."
The School Board budget eliminates 138 positions and furloughs top administrators only. It was originally projected to include $14.7 million in cuts, but a final accounting of increased expenses and funding decreases added about $300,000 to the total cuts in the budget approved by the board.
Staff contracts for the 2010-11 school year are being drawn up that will allow the division to implement furlough days, if necessary. A division-wide furlough would save about $600,000 per day.
The budget plan passed by the Senate Finance Committee on Sunday leaves the Spotsylvania division closest to where it stands with its current budget, which goes into effect July 1, Hill said.
House and Senate budget proposals are both scheduled for votes today. Both include implementation of an updated state funding formula for schools and a reduction in the amount each division must contribute toward the Virginia Retirement System for its employees.
The updated funding formula would reduce Spotsylvania's state funding cut between $1.1 million and $1.5 million.
Reducing the school division's portion of the VRS payment by about 6 percent would save the county between $5 million and $6 million, Hill and Seaux said yesterday.
Seaux said it's too early to know exactly how the various budget proposals would impact the school division's budget. On March 9, he expects the Virginia Board of Education to provide a template that would enable the division to make those calculations.
He questioned why McDonnell's budget includes deep cuts to education, which will lead to staff cuts at school divisions across the state when he's pushing a job-growth platform that helped elect him.
Both Hill and Seaux were encouraged by the initial discussions of Spotsylvania County's fiscal 2011 budget. On Tuesday, County Administrator Doug Barnes recommended to the Board of Supervisors that the division receive $113.8, which is the same funding as it received this year.
Hill and Seaux also support Barnes' recommendation of at least an equalized tax rate on real estate. Barnes recommended that following a countywide reassessment that showed a 23.5 percent drop in residential property values.
If the rate stayed at 62 cents per $100 of valuation, Seaux said the division would lose another $17.1 million, which would be devastating.
The division's operating budget will decline for the third straight year, whatever the final budget for the state, so stable funding from the county is "critical," Seaux said.
Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
Email: pgould@freelancestar.com