VERONA – The Augusta County School Board passed a more than $90 million budget Tuesday that slashes two dozen teaching jobs, uses debt-service money and requires employees to contribute to their health insurance.
A total of 38 positions, including seven in administration, will be cut, all through attrition, officials said.
The district will ask the county to reallocate $650,000 in debt-service money to the operating budget, Superintendent Gary McQuain said.
Employees will contribute 10 percent, or slightly more than $50 monthly, to their health insurance, McQuain said.
Still, the district is $164,000 shy of balancing its budget this time around, the superintendent said. County supervisors are scheduled to vote on the spending plan by the end of the month.
Middle River School Board member David Shiflett described this as “by far the worst” budget he has seen.
Shiflett said deciding to use debt retirement money was difficult because that limits the district’s ability to pay for capital improvements in future years. But that move prevented the district from requiring further contributions from employees, he said.
“We don’t want to hit the teachers twice,” Shiflett said.
Another alternative was to ask employees to pay 1 percent of their Virginia Retirement System contributions, he said.
Shiflett said he hoped to convey the message to teachers and other district employees “that we hope this is temporary. We hope to get back to where we were.”
Next fiscal year’s budget is roughly 6 percent smaller than last year’s, which totaled slightly less than $96 million.
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