001Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Prince William County School Board. We are going to have a work session this evening on the um uh CIP. And um so today we have uh first I need to have an approval of the agenda. A motion's in order. Vice Chair Jesse, >> I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting agenda as recommended. You >> have a second, >> Mr. Chairman. >> Uh Mr. Sarapor, >> I second. Any any discussion? All in favor, please signify by raising your hand. And any opposed? >> Six yet. Six yes. Two not present vote. Tradenic Williams. Motion passed. >> Okay. Moving on to the office um of the chief financial officer. Before we begin, we have a Koa statement to be read by school board member Justin Wilk. Mr.
002Wilk. >> Thank you everyone. uh stating that pursuant to the Virginia State and Local Conflict of Interest Act, I'm required to declare the following regarding adoption of this budget. My wonderful wife is employed as a teacher in Prince William County Public Schools, and I therefore have a personal interest in this transaction. Number two, I'm a member of a group of three or more persons affected by the transaction. And number three, I'm able to participate in the adoption of the budget fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Mr. Wilk. Uh, at this time, uh, we will, um, I will be turning the meeting over shortly to Dr. McDade, uh, for our budget work session and and final markup. But before I do that, I have some sort of, uh, introductory
003remarks, kind of take us through how we do this. Um, first off, just as we think about the budget this year, and I've mentioned this at prior schoolboard meetings, things that I'm concerned about and that many of us are concerned about is what's happening down in Richmond and sort of the general economic environment. There are concerns about um recalculating the LCI, the local composite index, which can impact the funding that Prince William County receives from the state. Um there are some um um ideas and bills out there that could reduce uh school funding to Prince William County up to $40 million a year. Um it's unclear what the general assembly is going to decide on, but there are things that we are continuing to take into consideration as we um plan our next four-year strategic
004plan and our budget. Concerns about inflation, concerns about unfunded mandates that are being circulated in the general assembly as well. and then constantly being observant of what's happening at the board of county supervisors and how their tax policy and tax decisions will impact our school funds. And so, you know, as we move through the budget markup this evening, I want to acknowledge a concern that continues to arise in our community, which is a level of per pupil investment in Prince William County Public Schools. The reality is that our students continue to receive one of the lowest per pupil investments among neighboring divisions even as the expectations placed on our schools continue to grow. In comparison to other districts, Prince William County Schools, and I have a slide up here for for everyone to take a
005look at. In comparison to other districts, Prince William County Schools is funded at about $20,000 per student. That trails Fairfax at who's at almost 22,000. Alexandria, who's over 22,000, Lden at almost 24,000, and Arlington at a staggering $25,46. And yet, we are serving more than 90,000 students with diverse and complex needs. Our students deserve the same level of opportunity, support, and access as students anywhere else in the region. This is not about comparison for comparison's sake. It is fundamentally about fairness, competitiveness, our shared responsibility to ensure every child has the resources needed to thrive. We have made meaningful progress over the years, and I'm grateful to the for our partnerships that have helped us move forward. But we must be honest. If we want to fully deliver on our commitments to students, staff, and families,
006continued investments matter. This is what this is why our budget matters. It's not simply about numbers on a page. It's about whether we are willing to match our expectations for student success with the resources required to make that success possible. When we invest in our schools and we invest in our students, then we ensure a thriving future for all of us. With those remarks completed, I'd like to turn the meeting over to Dr. McDade. Dr. McDade. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um just as a quick review before we begin um to review markup for the public on February 4th, our team public publicly presented the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget and capital improvement program or CIP and the school board then held a public meeting on the proposed budget on February 9th followed by a
007public hearing on February 18th. And then tonight is the school board's work session for the final markup of the FY27 budget. We've worked uh collaboratively um with our budget team departments for several months to develop the fiscical year 27 budget and CIP. And in this budget, you'll find that we are finalizing um are concluding vision 2025 plan and commitments that were uh that needed to be fulfilled there to close out vision 2025. And we're also uh launching the foundational support for our new strategic plan, Elevate 2030. And so we're really excited about uh so many future focused and innovative programs. Um particularly you'll see in the new budget um a a significant investment in universal prek which is a part of elevate 2030. And so I really want to before we get started just thank
008the school board for your time for your attention your and your engagement throughout this process and all of the feedback that you've given to us. um you've reviewed and analyzed the proposed budget and provided critical feedback and suggestions. And so you'll see some that the budget doesn't have significant changes, but there are suggestions by the board that will be reflected in the work session tonight. Um, so I just want to thank each of you for being proactive and being involved throughout this process to ensure that there is alignment um with our Elevate uh 2030 strategic plan and our financial resources so that we make good on the commitments that we have made to our students, to our schools, and to our families. So at this time, I would like to turn the presentation over to
009our chief financial officer, Mr. Shaquille Yousef. He'll provide an update on the fiscal year 27 budget um including all of the markup items that we'll be reviewing tonight. Mr. Yousef. Good evening, Dr. Latif, school board members, and Dr. McDade. Uh today's presentation provides an update of the FY27 proposed revenue outlook and markup changes under consideration after board input. I'll start with the county revenue. Um the this is a quick timeline of what has happened and what is uh going to happen. On March 3rd, the finance and budget committee of um Prince William County had a discussion on on increasing the computer and peripheral tax for for specific non-school uses. Uh fortunately that did not come out of that committee as uh as uh proposed on March 3rd. The committee approved the advertisement of the current
010rate of 90 cents 90 90.906 cents for real property taxes and an increase rate of up to four $4.50 for the computer and peripheral taxes. So this is what they they have advertised. This doesn't mean that that that's where they will end up. On March 10th, 2026, uh which was yesterday, they had a revenue update and there was no no change from the C CXO's proposed budget. April 7, 2027 uh 2026 is when we do the budget recap and schoolboard presentation to the BOCS. Um on the 14th of April, uh Prince William County will do their own budget markup and on April 21st they go for budget adoption. That's the update on county revenues at this point in time. Moving on to the state revenue. On February 26, the House and Senate approved their budgets
011with additional K12 resources. Preliminary estimates will result in net additional funds for PWCS. Important to note, and specifically with the House bill, the majority of new funds are one-time and will need to be spent on one-time items such as curriculum, tutoring, and construction. We are expecting and hoping that the conference report will be available by Thursday, March 12th, because on Saturday they will go into Sindai and they need 48 hours to act upon it. uh we're hoping that they the uh the state will have this uh out there at the general assembly so that we can have a budget in a timely fashion. Um so for this budget we've hel held the school estimates our estimates uh the same as the proposed budget. We're not taking any action yet on that. We anticipate that by
012April 13th uh there would be final action by the governor. If not, if there's vetos, etc., this could go into April 22, 2026 when the general re general assembly reconvenes, which means that this is well past uh will go past the date that the county appropriates. Um the outlook for state budget funding, as Dr. Latif alluded to beyond the current bianium is tempered by the upcoming reset of the local composite index. As you know, Prince William County's real property values and overall wealth is increasing and this could potentially increase. This is a very early prelim pre preliminary estimate. Our LCI from a 37% to a 40% which could almost affect our revenues by $40 million less revenues from the state. This is something that's happening in the future and it's worth noting that there are
013some pressures that are coming uh beyond this um beyond what we have. In terms of the summary of the markup, there are no additional revenues assumed at this time from the state and county. Uh we did shift about $2.1 million revenue from debt service to operating fund due to uh the approval of the scenario B decision. In terms of our expenditures, uh following staff review and analysis, there's a recommendation for 28 FTEES totaling 3.42 42 million to be included in the uh markup. The other thing I would like to uh mention is we do recommend an adjustment to the FY202731 CIP. This is a technical adjustment does not does not necessarily involve funds or additional funding, but this is to include a prek center architectural design to start that work. We estimate it's going to
014be about $4 million so that we are able to also roll out a universal prek by 2030. So this is getting more of a design as to what a prek center will look at. It's not sight specific at this moment. It's just getting that since it was not called out in the 202731 CIP. And then finally uh this is what were the additional investments that we uh we've put in markup. We're adding 10 bus drivers uh to ensure that there's operational stability and instructional support. We are adding a 30 set coordinator to support the internal permit review. Uh we're working on you we've heard uh from everyone and and a lot of our theater folks that the current process with the county doing it could be ownorous on us. We increasing the support for high
015school athletic trainers with one additional trainer for each high school and putting us on par with both Lowden and Fairfax. We're increasing our supplements for girls wrestling, girls flag football, and boys volleyball. Uh we are adding two community safety officers to increase our cso presence at our elementary schools. Uh we adding two encore teachers for the two schools that have students over a thousand covenant Harper and Hart Elementary uh school. So again our total markup is 28 FTEES at 3 3,417,413 And that concludes our markup presentation. >> Mr. Chairman, can you go back? Shaquille. Um, Mr. Chairman, I would like to just add a little bit of um detail on a couple of the markup items that Mr. Yousef shared. For the first one, this is the bus drivers. I just want to note we
016did get feedback from um at least one board member multiple as a matter of fact about the need to support um activities after school activities for students and having more activity buses. So, I did want to add just a finer point here that the 10 bus drivers, yes, it will support um operational efficiency in transportation, but it also will go a long way in supporting the need to um address some of the concerns that board members had about the afterchool activity buses. The theater set coordinator, just want to kind of come back to that because um Mr. Bach and his team did have an opportunity to work with the county office. And so the reason we need the theater set coordinator is because if we do self-p permitting, we need someone that will have oversight
017of uh the the theater sets internally. And so we don't have the capacity to do to take on that new work without having someone specifically um assigned to that when those projects come up. And then uh the increased support for the high school athletic trainers. This would help bring us on par regionally, which was something that several board members asked about. So those were just a few that I wanted to um put a little bit of additional information in. And the last one was also um something that was flagged by uh one of our board members. And so Coington Harper came up in the PTOAC district because it's the only um elementary school with over a thousand students. And so once we took a look at that, we looked across the county to see if
018there were any other schools that had that level of enrollment. And Hay Market in the Brinsville district was the only other school that had um a thousand plus students. And so that's why only those two schools are listed here to have the extra FTE for Encore because they're the only elementary schools with that large population. That makes it challenging to offer the Encore courses. >> Uh Dr. Dr. McD just on the quick question on the supplements that allow for wrestling, flag football, boys volleyball. So that's supplements, but will we also be including money in the budget for the schools to buy whatever equipment they need to do those sports? >> We have additional um funding already allocated for uh athletics centrally, but this uh add-on was specifically based on the feedback that we received and
019and some conversations that happened at the Dis. >> Okay. Um, anything else from you all? Okay, questions, >> Miss Tradenic. >> Um, I'm just curious for the athletic trainers. This is one full-time, not a part-time person. Can they flex that into two part-time? Can they So, this would be this would allow two full-time for each high school. And uh just to put a finer point on what Mr. Yousef said, it would be in alignment with Fairfax, Louden, and Alexandria City. >> Is there a possibility that they could use that as a flex position, as in having two part-time people fill that role? Because I do know that that was a need that was brought to my attention that sometimes that full-time position is harder to fill. If if that's the case, can they utilize it
020in a different way would be what I would ask. We didn't discuss that, but I would say that if they're if the money is being assigned for an athletic trainer, it would have to be used for an athletic trainer. Um, so if they decided to get two part-time people, I don't necessarily see that being a problem. It's not something we discuss with the athletic um director, but so long as the position is used for its intended purpose, I don't see where that's a problem. is when um the position is assigned for an athletic trainer because that's the identified need and then it's being taken and used for something else. So, it would not be allowed to be used for something other than an athletic trainer. But I don't see an issue if they have problems
021staffing a full-time if they had um you know two part- timerrs to split the position. That's not a problem. I do want to note that Fairfax doesn't currently have the two. They will for next year, but um you know I don't want to uh make it appear that they have it today. Louden does. Um but they all by next year will all have two. So this would bring bring us on par with our peers. >> Yeah. And I think that I mean in hearing that need from them, having those two part-time would would help meet a need where they can't currently meet it. Um I I think that I know we we know that a lot of positions are hard to fill sometimes. So giving them that option to do a part-time role for some
022of our people that have retired that still have their certification, that kind of thing that could come back, you know, only for certain things like games and things like that would be um would be a nice thing. So um and then I have one more question about the CSOS. Um can you talk a little bit currently, uh Vern, about how many CSOS we currently have at the elementary level? And this might be a question I ask again. >> Sure. Uh we have currently 18. This would bring us up to 20 with 62 elementary schools that roughly have three assigned elementary schools per coo. So that gives us an additional arm presence at our elementary sites. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions, Miss Wall? >> Um I had a question. Thank you for this information.
023Um it's really good. Um the question I have um my first question is regarding the supplements allowing for the wrestling and flag football and volleyball and my question is will this funding then allow for um a startup this coming fall for each of those programs? >> That's the plan when we look at I'm getting the the nod from the high school team. So yes. >> Okay, great. I think um we'll have a lot of very happy students. [laughter] Um also question um you mentioned about the county process being ownorous and I know we were working with the county to try to work on I'm talking about the theater set coordinator. Um assuming that that goes forward and then we take on that responsibility. Um is that what other uses could a theater set coordinator do
024or is this kind of a full-time position? That's my question. Is this like a full-time or a parttime? happy to address that. Uh it is going to be fulltime. Uh we also have a lot of other things in the state in the auditorium that need inspecting uh including our sound system, our lights, our fire curtains. There's a whole lot of other additional work that's going to be picked up uh as part of that. A big focus will be um you know, inspecting the sets, working with students as they're constructing the sets, providing feedback and how to enhance the designs, make them safer. also coordinating back and forth with the county reviewing designs. It's it's going to be uh that that person's going to be fair pretty busy. >> Okay, that's great. So maybe just a
025suggestion we call it not set coordinator but like theater coordinator. I don't know. I mean because set set makes it sound like >> sure that it's very specific. >> If they're also going to be looking at and I know this is an issue with some high schools that I know of. um like lighting is a problem, it's hot, the wires are bad, you know, things like that, like the stage, the sounds, all that, >> the curtains, all the things you mentioned. >> Yep. >> Um but, you know, maybe maybe it's fine to call it set coordinator. >> It's good feedback. >> Just just a little bit of feedback. Okay, great. Um no, I I I appreciate the um the description of the items added to the budget. Thank you very much. Anybody else? Okay. Say
026their piece. Okay. Um so at this time normally um after we do this and and you know I think um this year has been terrific in the sense that um you know we did this sort of at the same time we did our strategic plan. So everything aligned and there's been a lot of discussions about, you know, what we'd like to see in the budget, what we'd like to see moving forward over the next four years. So I think that's made this much more efficient of a process and we appreciate all the hard work that the staff has put into the budget. Uh we come back and vote on the budget next week. Is that correct? Okay. Um so before we do that I think um at this point um we will come to the
027board for [cough] a vote next Thursday. So I just asked the board we're not voting but does anyone have any major opposition to any issues because the budget will show up looking very similar to what it looks like now next Thursday. And if you have any issues, please bring them up with the superintendent over the next week um to try to iron out and um any any concerns or differences. Um but if not, I assume the board will vote for this budget as is next week. Do I have any any folks who object to what I'm saying? No. Okay. So that's our quote straw poll. Um which is not a real vote, but there um just for note for the minutes, I see no opposition to the um the budget as is. So moving on,
028we do need to get into close session tonight. So we do have a motion to enter close session. A motion is in order. Vice Chair Jesse, >> that pursuant to section 2.2-3711 and 2.2-3712 of the code of Virginia, the Prince County School Board enter close session for the following reasons. One to discuss with legal counsel and staff matters pertaining to actual or prohibitive probable litigation and specific legal matters involving the hiring, assignment, and appointment of the specific public employees pursuant to section 2.2-3711A 1 and seven and 8 of the code of Virginia. Do you have a second? [cough] >> Second. [clears throat] >> Any discussion? All in favor? Signal by raising your hand. Any opposed? >> Voted eight. Yes. Unanimous. Motion passed. >> Okay. At this time, the Prince William County School Board will enter
029close session. And um it's unclear when we'll return. Okay. We have five. Um at this time, we are now reconvening in open session. Um, we will have a close session certification motion in order 6.01. Vice Chair Jesse, >> I move that pursuant to section 2.2-3712 of the code of Virginia, the close session of the Prince County School Board meeting of March 11th, 2026 be certified by adopting the following resolution. [clears throat] Now therefore be of resolve that the Prince County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one only the public business matter lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies. And two, only such ma public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard
030and discussed or considered by the school board. >> Do you have a second? >> Mr. Chairman, >> Miss Arbor second. >> Any discussion? Please vote. All in favor signify raising your hand. Any opposed? >> Vote is seven. Yes. One not present. Vote Wilk. Motion passed. >> At this time, the school board meeting will be adjourned.