National inflation and changes in state revenue have Hampton Roads school officials bracing for extra challenges this upcoming fiscal year.

School boards are working on budgets that meet each division’s “most pressing needs,” as Norfolk Superintendent Sharon Byrdsong explained in Wednesday’s meeting. This includes staff compensation, capital improvement projects and different program needs.

School budgets are cobbled together from state and local contributions, sales tax and more. Federal funding is just a sliver of the revenue. In some cases, state contributions make up the most significant portion of the budgets.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed budget, as presented in December, touts record spending in public education at $18.4 billion over the next two years. Several grants and initiatives are geared toward lingering post-pandemic concerns, such as chronic absenteeism and learning loss. It also includes raises for critical instructional staff. However, a December Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission study found that increased investment in education was being outpaced by inflation.

State spending per student rose by about 12% over the past two years while inflation increased by nearly 14%. This affects much of the divisions’ expenses, including the cost of instructional materials and supplies, utilities, building maintenance and more.

“Over the past year, our national, state and local economies have barely avoided a recession,” Virginia Beach Superintendent Donald Robertson said Tuesday.

The Virginia Beach School Board determined it would not move forward with a proposed project to rebuild three buildings — four schools total — because of the costs. These were Princess Anne and Bayside High schools, and the Bayside 6th Grade and Bettie F. Williams Elementary School.

Instead, the proposed capital improvement plan presented Tuesday set the Bayside 6th Grade and Bettie F. Williams building as a priority, pushing the two high schools back decades. Funding for those projects will go to maintenance and other areas.

In addition, Youngkin’s tax reform impacts funding. When grocery and personal hygiene taxes were cut, schools still received funding to match that revenue. For example, that is estimated to be about $2.8 million for Portsmouth schools this fiscal year. Suffolk Public Schools is anticipating a loss in sales tax revenue of about $1.2 million.

That match goes away next budget year, which begins July 1. Portsmouth reported that it will have to make up for that loss themselves, along with other school divisions.

Hampton Roads school systems are facing a teacher shortage, and each budget reflects that urgency. Anthonette Ward-Dickens, communications and community engagement officer for Suffolk Public Schools, stated Virginia lags when it comes to teacher salaries. According to a January legislative report, the state is 21st in the country for the average salary of K-12 teachers. The proposed state budget includes 1% bonuses for state-funded positions.

Norfolk Public Schools proposed funneling money that isn’t being spent because of staff vacancies to fund staff bonuses and stipends. These stipends and bonuses were funded through federal relief funds during the last several years and schools are about to feel the loss of that money, which expires in September.

The state’s “All-In” funding for tutoring, attendance and literacy will help, but the relief funding supported “so much more” over the last three years, Ward-Dickens stated.

School boards will continue working on the budgets through the spring as the state works on its own during the legislative session. One official in Virginia Beach said during Tuesday’s meeting that if the General Assembly heeds some of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission recommendations, more funding can come the schools’ way.

Kelsey Kendall, kelsey.kendall@virginiamedia.com