Franklin County Supervisors and School District disagree over funding
FRANKLIN COUNTY, Va. (WFXR) — With less state funding and an end to federal pandemic monies, Franklin County is debating the funds going toward their schools.
The schools presented their 2024-2025 budget Tuesday night, roughly a week after the school board voted to close two elementary schools because of financial difficulty.
“I’m not going to vote for the school budget as long as it includes closing our schools,” said Blue Ridge District Supervisor Tim Tatum at Tuesday’s meeting.
“The budget issue that’s had more impact on Franklin County is the increase in the local composite index,” explained Superintendent Dr. Kevin Siers in an interview Wednesday.
The LCI is a state formula setting what the Commonwealth will give schools versus what Franklin County will give, and it resulted in the state providing $3.7 million less to the district.
Dr. Siers proposed the schools’ budget to a less-than-satisfied Franklin County Board of Supervisors, who had given the district money to cover that funding gap and keep the schools open.
“Granted you didn’t get all of it, you got $2.5 million of it, and then the next thing I know schools are closing,” said Tatum Tuesday.
About half of that $2.5 million was money carried over from the previous year; roughly $1.25 million was stopgap funding given by the County.
Dr. Siers says when the school board elected to close Burnt Chimney and Henry Elementary Schools, that $1.25 million was not allocated to anything. WFXR confirmed that that is reflected in the proposed budget.
“The $1.25 million that the County approved was set aside,” said Dr. Siers in an interview Wednesday. “We did not use that in our budget calculations for next year, what we have done is said to Franklin County, to the Board of Supervisors, that we would like you to instead invest recurring funding into our salary study.”
Dr. Siers asked for $2.9 million to raise salaries for school staff in his budget presentation.
“I just have a problem,” said Tatum about the closing of two schools in the district after the budget presentation. “I think that we’re shortchanging our kids.”
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Dr. Siers says there’s no going back on the closing of Burnt Chimney and Henry Elementary Schools; the Virginia Department of Education has already been notified of the School Board’s decision.
He says that the district would only have been able to keep one school open for one year with the money they expected to receive.
Supervisors asked Tuesday why the schools didn’t wait to see if the State could provide more funds but appeared to agree with Dr. Siers when he argued that state budget approvals can stretch into the summer and that would be too late.
Dr. Siers says closing the schools was the most reliable option so families and staff could know where they were spending their future.
Franklin County Public Schools will be hosting an informational session for Burnt Chimney and Henry families on March 13. They will meet principals from their new schools and hear from transportation officials about getting their kids to class.
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