VERONA – Augusta County Schools officials will examine increased employee contributions to the Virginia Retirement System and more employee costs for health insurance to bridge a budget gap of multiple millions of dollars in the 2010-11 budget.
Superintendent Gary McQuain told the Augusta County School Board on Thursday that with either the House or Senate version of funding for next year’s budget, the school district still lacks sufficient money. McQuain estimated that the House version of the budget offers $1.9 million less than what the county needs, while the Senate version comes up $4.4 million short.
House and Senate conferees will meet over the next nine days seeking to negotiate a budget deal by March 13.
McQuain said the shortfall comes even in the wake of a successful early retirement incentive the county schools have offered staff. As of Thursday, 67 teachers, administrators and support staff had signed up to take an early retirement. And McQuain said the net reduction in staff for next year would help the county reduce its expenses by just over $2 million.
School board members said while they are reluctant to increase health care costs and the retirement contribution costs to employees, those are better alternatives than cutting salaries.
Riverheads member Chad Shomo said salary cuts could affect employees’ retirements, since the benefit is based on a worker’s highest three years of annual pay.
Middle River member David Shiflett agreed. “With the increased health care contribution and VRS, we can buffer the impact on employees,’’ he said.
The leadership of the school board also will meet with Augusta County supervisors before a March 18 public hearing to see if it is possible to get $650,000 from a capital account to help with the operating budget shortfall.
A meeting between the chairman and vice chairman of both bodies is expected before the March 18 school board meeting.
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