001Good evening and welcome to this evening's public hearing at this time the board will open its public hearing for comments regarding the proposed FY 2026 operating budget prior to your comments a short overview will be provided the board considers this an opportunity to listen to your comments and we'll consider your concerns in its deliberations so if we could have our presentation oh sorry about that let well let's let's do our Pledge of Allegiance sorry I'm moving right along Miss Harris would you please do the honors absolutely I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you for reminding me team I appreciate that good evening Madame chair Madam co-chair members of the
002board and Dr Mitchell thank you for this opportunity to give a quick overview of the superintendent's fiscal year 2026 proposed operating budget the superintendent's Five Focus areas resulted in these eight budget drivers academic success, student and staff supports, leadership and instruction, professional development, family and Community engagement, Recruitment and Retention, school and Building Safety, technology supports, and operations and maintenance. the amount of Revenue that we expect to receive from the state and locality drives what we'll be able to accomplish in a budget this is their current Revenue projection for fiscal year 26 from all sources we are projecting an increase from 399.99 million for fiscal year '26 that is a state increase of 4 million in a city request of 2.4 million and no appreciable changes per Federal and other revenue for a total increase of
0036.4 million this is another way to look at our Revenue projection for fiscal year 2026 we are projecting to receive 67.7% from the Commonwealth of Virginia for uh 275.000 30.9% from the city or 125.5 million 8% from federal funding and point six from other sources such as athletic events, driver's ed and rent from their school buildings makes up the other 5.6 million for a total of 46.3 million this is their operating budget by cost category 87% of our operating budget goes to salaries and benefits for a total of [Music] 352.30 million or 133% is for everything else we need to run the School Division this is the superintendent proposed fiscal year 26 operating budget by function with instructional Services being 70.6% % operations of Maintenance 11.5% transportation 6.8% technology 4.4% and the remaining functions totaling
0046.7% for a total of 46.3 million we continue to Monitor and manage our staff salaries to ensure we attract and retain the best staff for fiscal year 2026 we are the superintendent's proposed operating budget allocates funding for a 3% salary increase for contracted employees continue to maintain our teacher salary scales increase associate teacher and teacher starting pay in line with the 3% increase and maintain competitive salaries for our support staff and provide sign on bonuses for our high need license positions aligning the operating budget with the superintendent's Five Focus areas this slide highlights some of the significant priorities uh 27.2 million will support academics 8.5 million will support air safety initiatives 90.5 million will support our focus on accountability 1.3 million will support our communication enhancement efforts and 35.9 million will support culture and climate
005this is an overview of the superintendent's proposed Staffing plan for fiscal year 2026 instructional staff to include teachers and instructional assistant position total 2,1 154.50 FTE or 55.4% of our total full-time positions with 12% of their Staffing is transportation and this includes bus drivers 12% includes professionals such as nurses school counselors media Specialists psychologists and Technology Staffing and support and then 5% of our staffing his administrators and another 11% is custodial maintenance and security for a total of [Music] 38955 full-time equivalents health insurance costs per member continue to grow for fiscal year 26 we are expecting an increase of 2.4 million increased cost to the plan this spending plan recommends the school board cover 2 million and the employee group cover 400,000 this translates to an increase in premiums between $5 and $7 64 cents
006a month for individuals and two $22.28 to $30.7 per month for family plans. to summarize we are projecting an increase of 64.4 million in new Revenue as you can see here we have increases of in expenditures of 18.9 million which includes our salary increase support staff Market adjustments sign on bonuses um an increase in a healthc care cost increasing New Horizons fuel utilities operation and maintenance of our schools and facilities and a decrease of 12.5 million which includes a reduction of 12.7 teaching positions um asking our employees to share in the cost of health insurance decrease in City pension liability and our V Debt Service a decrease in Contract Services online software materials and supplies and um recognizing also non- reoccurring costs and projections of savings for turnover and attrition so our total increases were
00718.9 million in expenditures minus 12.5 decrease in expenditures equals the 6.4 million in new Revenue to provide a balanced budget to uh so tonight is our public hearing and our next steps we will uh at the school board meeting on March 18th we will um ask the school board for approval of the superintendent's proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2026 thank you very much so do I have any additional cards at this time okay Christine Parker cologne all right good evening everyone thank you for having me uh my name is Christine Parker cologne and I'm a representative for n&a um the Virginia state budget provides a lump sum one-time bonus to all School divisions equal to 1,000 uh $1,000 for each state supported standards of quality s soq instructional and support position this is the
008only state provided bonus for School Employees in in this budget and must be paid out this school year divisions have full flexibility to give it to any of their employees in the amount that they choose but with that being said uh while the funds will be distributed to each division based on its number of s soq funded positions the funds are not restricted to S soq funded employees meaning School divisions May distribute them to any employee at any amount the S soq funding formula is based on minimum education standards and many divisions employ more instructional and support staff um that are funded by the soq if additional funds are available locally push for school boards uh or sorry if the additional funds are local available please ensure that all School employees receive the full $1,000
009amount if the division is unable to meet the full $1,000 amount this year please budget for the difference for the next school year to make employees whole we also ask that the school board publicly explain how they plan to distribute the fund um we request a written report or official statement on the distribution process and criteria thank you for your time and I hope everyone has a good evening thank you Mary Voss hello uh Mary Voss NNPS teacher parent and graduate and proud Secretary of the Newport News Education Association um hello Dr Mitchell chair Surles Law uh Vice chair Dr best and members of the board um the Virginia House and Senate passed a budget that includes a line item for matching funds for a recommended $11,000 bonus for state employees which includes of course
010teachers and School staff um Governor youngkin has until March 24th to either sign this line item veto it or let it pass without a signature while it's possible that youngkin will veto a $1,000 bonus for state employees it's also very possible that he'll let it stand um if that's the case vaa and n&a are advocating for nnps to match funds and provide the $1,000 bonus to all categories of employees from custodians to bus drivers to cafeteria staff to instructional assistants to teachers and other licensed staff and all the positions in between we're all in this together to help nnps run run successfully and all of us deserve a $1,000 bonus for many support staff a 3% rate while certainly a better than a less than 3% raise does not go very far I spoke with
011bus drivers for whom a 3% raise means 75 cents or less per hour that's why it's important that all categories of employees have access to this bonus if it passes the governor's desk uh during the nnps budget presentation we learned that the Schoolboard share of increased health insurance premiums have increased dramatically in recent years up $14 million in just 5 years um so first of all a big thank you to the school board for shouldering much of the health insurance increases in recent years um however it is still hard on employees when a sizable chunk of our 3% raise is eaten up by increased Insurance costs um so please consider any additional relief that the school board might possibly be able to offer on the rising healthc care cost front um again the increasing cost
012of health insurance is especially hard on School staff who are likely to have a larger p portion of their raise canceled out by Rising health insurance costs um once again this underscores the importance of giving the potential $1,000 bonus to all categories of NNPS employees uh finally the biggest comment I hear about the budget from employees other than that they'd like a bigger raise is that they wish more money would be put toward retention bonuses rather than signing bonuses in order to show appreciation for the hardworking staff and teachers who are already here working in the trenches often and and often have been here working in the trenches for many years uh thank you very much for your time and consideration thank you so one more time do we have any additional cards okay thank
013you board members I'll give you an opportunity to comment if you choose I know this is our um honored time to hear from the public so I will see if anyone has comments at this time seeing is that there are no additional uh business for this meeting if this meeting is adjourned