{"id":27771,"date":"2025-12-10T19:32:44","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T00:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/?p=27771"},"modified":"2025-12-10T19:32:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T00:32:45","slug":"supervisors-confront-school-budget-unknowns-nda-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/2025\/12\/supervisors-confront-school-budget-unknowns-nda-concerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Supervisors confront school budget unknowns, NDA concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Heather Michon
Correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

School officials brought more questions than answers to Wednesday night\u2019s Board of Supervisors meeting (Dec. 3), outlining a budget picture that remains largely uncertain without key information from the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Superintendent Peter Gretz, his leadership team, and several School Board members walked supervisors through the pressures that are already taking shape for the FY27 budget, which the School Board will finalize and send to the county during budget season in early 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gretz said the division still lacks two critical pieces of information from Richmond: the governor\u2019s proposed budget and the state\u2019s annual budget template. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until both are released, he said, the schools cannot calculate projected revenue, determine staffing needs, or estimate how state-level changes might affect local funding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One loss the division can already count on is the end of roughly $360,000 in \u201call-in\u201d state funding, a temporary block of money that has helped cover several school-based positions over the past few years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gretz said those roles, which include classroom support positions and other instructional or student-service staff, will either have to be cut or moved onto the local budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are also broader staffing pressures taking shape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, the School Board has worked to raise teacher salaries and benefits to keep Fluvanna competitive with surrounding divisions. Gretz said that progress has begun to slip, and the division is once again falling toward the bottom of local pay scales, a trend that could make it harder to recruit and retain qualified teachers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Palmyra School Board representative James Kelley noted that compensation remains a major concern in staff surveys. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we survey our community, we survey our staff, salary matters tremendously,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it can’t be the deciding factor for all of them because they’re staying. And it\u2019s the lowest.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warned that the division risks leaning too heavily on employees\u2019 loyalty and ties to the community if salaries continue to lag behind neighboring divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recently completed enrollment study adds another layer of urgency. The analysis projects Fluvanna will gain about 400 students over the next five to seven years, with most of that growth expected at the elementary and middle school levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gretz said the high school still has some room to absorb additional students, but the lower grades are already so tight that \u201cI don\u2019t know where we would put 10 kids.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He and the School Board members agreed that the division will need a full capacity study to determine how, or where, those future students could be accommodated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chronic absenteeism emerged as one of the division\u2019s most pressing concerns. School leaders said the rate of students missing large amounts of school time has climbed sharply and now exceeds that of neighboring counties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The district had previously added extra staff to support attendance interventions, but one of those positions was cut last year due to budget constraints, a move officials now believe set them back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To regain ground, the division plans to request funds to restore two attendance-focused positions as part of its upcoming carryover request. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Administrators warned that without staff dedicated to tracking and working with chronically absent students and their families, the problem will continue to worsen, especially as cuts to state and federal programs reduce access to services that help keep vulnerable students stable enough to attend school consistently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the uncertainties, school leaders pointed to some encouraging signs, including steady instructional progress, strong staff commitment, and available space at the high school to help absorb part of the projected enrollment growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the conversation wound down, both boards acknowledged that many of the biggest questions won\u2019t be answered until later this winter. For now, supervisors will have to wait for Richmond to weigh in before the county can begin shaping its side of the FY27 budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nondisclosure agreements<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twice in the past year, supervisors have signed nondisclosure agreements with companies exploring projects in Fluvanna County. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the agreement with Tenaska has largely expired, the NDA covering Amazon\u2019s proposed warehouse, known publicly only by the code name \u201cProject Hoops,\u201d may remain in effect for another two years, even as construction moves forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supervisors said the prolonged secrecy creates awkward situations when residents ask for information about visible or widely rumored developments. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI literally stood on the property beside it yesterday with people, and I couldn\u2019t tell them what the sign said at the entrance to the property,\u201d Chris Fairchild (Cunningham) said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

County Attorney Dan Whitten told the board the NDA allows only a narrow, preapproved script. \u201cYou can say Amazon,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can say the word. We have a specific sentence we can say, but that\u2019s all we can say is that particular script. We can say the word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic Development Director Jennifer Schmack said the restrictions stem in part from how Virginia handles economic development incentives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Projects receiving state incentives must remain confidential until the governor makes the formal announcement, and early disclosure can jeopardize those incentives. Companies \u201ccan lose all of their incentives,\u201d she said, noting that such losses \u201chave happened in several cases throughout the state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fairchild urged the county to create its own guidelines for future NDAs so boards are not bound by open-ended or overly restrictive terms written by companies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the county should insist on clear time limits and release conditions to avoid situations where supervisors cannot respond to constituents\u2019 questions about projects already underway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 He asked Whitten to draft proposed language, saying the goal was to protect both the current and future boards from being placed in what he described as a subservient position with no clearly defined parameters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other matters<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supervisors voted to approve a new reassessment contract with Cowen Services, LLC, at a cost of $6.95 per parcel, or about $120,691 for the 2027 assessment cycle. Staff also briefed the board on imagery options for 2029, including the possibility of using EagleView aerial photography, but no vote was taken on that item.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution asking the Virginia Tourism Corporation to recognize Go Virginia Region 9 as its own tourism region, to be designated \u201cVirginia\u2019s Piedmont Region.\u201d Schmack said the change would better reflect how visitors engage with the area and strengthen regional marketing efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parks and Recreation Director Aaron Spitzer used the first round of public comment to rebut accusations made by Donald and Patti Reynard at previous meetings. Spitzer said the Reynards had incorrectly accused him of election interference during Mr. Reynard\u2019s campaign for Commissioner of the Revenue and misrepresented his interactions with them at senior programs and county events.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Heather MichonCorrespondent School officials brought more questions than answers to Wednesday night\u2019s Board of Supervisors meeting (Dec. 3), outlining a budget picture that remains largely uncertain without key information from the state. Superintendent Peter Gretz, his leadership team, and several School Board members walked supervisors through the pressures that are already taking shape for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,23,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-latest_news","category-schools"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27771"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27772,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27771\/revisions\/27772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fluvannareview.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}