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ACPS Version: An email from Annette Bennett, Superintendent:

ACPS Staff,

I write this email to provide facts and figures related to the recent funding debate that is happening between our School Board and Board of Supervisors (BOS).  In the attachment we have provided a very detailed explanation of how school funding works, what we requested from the Board of Supervisors and why.  While this attachment gives a detailed analysis, I want to respond directly to the facts and figures I have seen shared by some of the members of the Board of Supervisors and explain why the numbers they are using do not equate.

Simply stated, we have requested the amount of funding from our locality that will allow us to be fully funded by the state.  This amount is $7,637,043.  This is known as the Required Local Share/Match (RLM).  Some of the programs offered by K-12 education are required by code/law.  We do not have an option to eliminate them.  Other programs, however, are optional. With these programs, the state will give us money for the program but only if the locality agrees to contribute matching funds.  In Appomattox this is about a 70/30% investment, with the state paying 70%.  In other words, the RLM is the amount of funding the Commonwealth of Virginia says the locality should pay in order to receive ALL the state money we are eligible for and allows us to offer our staff and students access to as many programs as possible. For example, one of these 70/30 programs is our 4-year old program, Bright Beginnings.  In our case, the state will pay 70% of the cost of this program, if the locality will fund 30%.

The issue we have is that the BOS voted to fund us at $7,286,900- leaving a difference of $350,465 between what we ask for (RLM) and what they approved to give us. Unless the locality makes up this gap, we stand a chance of losing the 70% state portion of the matching funds which is about $1 million.  Instead, the BOS has suggested the school division make up the shortfall by using our  capital improvement plan (CIP) fund money. CIP money is what we try to save each year to repair large ticket facilities issue such as roofing, athletic fields, or HVAC for example. These funds are limited and, in fact, it is possible we will not have enough to make up this difference at years end.   

In recent communications, members of the BOS have also suggested that they are, in fact, spending more on education than necessary on our school division.   Let’s address each one of these numbers:

·      $5,809.366 Required Local Effort (RLE) - RLE is the bare minimum a locality must pay for education. This is different from the RLM in that it does not included any local matching funds. If our locality decided to fund our schools at this level, it would result in our locality forfeiting $5,788,221 in state money and the elimination of all of the programs that require a match.  

·      $1,482,333 for  Debt Service - This is the amount of money the county is paying on any loans or bonds they have taken out to fund school construction. The school facilities belong to the county not the schools.  Only counties and cities are allowed to borrow money or sell bonds for capital outlay.  While the county could certainly add this amount to the school budget, it would also come with the loan payments which adds nothing to our operating budget and Virginia does not allow Debt Service to be counted toward the county's RLE or the RLM.

·      $200,000 for  Private Day Schools - The county is given money from the state through the Community Service Act (CSA)to support residents who need additional assistance.  One use of this money is to provide educational services to is significantly handicapped students who need specialized educational services. These are highly specialized programs for high-needs children who we are not able to adequatley serve in our local schools.  ACPS does not get this money, and again, it does not count toward the RLE or RLM

·      $265,000 for School Resource Officers -  This money is actually included in the Sheriff Department’s budget.  School resource officers are deputies who are hired, trained, assigned, supervised, and paid by the Sheriff. The Sheriff determines if we have an SRO program in our schools, how many officers are used for this purpose, and how much time they spend in the school.  The Sheriff has the authority to use the deputies whenever and wherever he determines the priorities to be.  We are grateful the Sheriff chooses to provide this protection in our schools as much as he can.

I am hopeful this provides clarification to you as school employees about the rumors and information being shared.  Please do not hesitate to contact me or Dr. Tibbs if you have additional questions about this matter. 

Annette A. Bennett, Ed.D

Division Superintendent

Appomattox County Public Schools

aabennett@acpsweb.com

434-352-8251

BOS Version: A Facebook Post by Supervisor "Dutch" Henry:

Dutch Henry

Howdy Friends. I try not to discuss my activities as a board of supervisors member here in Appomattox VA here, because well, we do other stuff here on my page. And I have plenty of other venues to do that. But by golly there seems to have been a stir created about my vote on our county budget the other day. It seems someone, or someones, didn’t have their facts ironed out, about the school portion of budget, and were spreading statements that were not fact, (am I a fact checker now, hahaha) and causing a fair amount of concern, worry, anger and attacks. I received, as you might guess, a number of phone calls, and emails. SO I put the facts together in this email response. These numbers have been verified by our county administrator. As that old TV show used to say, “Just the facts.” Please read. So you know “The Rest of The Story.” ~ Gitty Up, Dutch. (Just a note, ours is a rural county with only 17,000 people.)

Thank you so much for your inquiry! It shows you are concerned and want to get the facts. Thank you for that. Please never hesitate to contact me.

So here are the facts. This year’s total budget for our county is $53, 991,082. There are a lot of parts that make up that total. There is much to fund.

Where does our money come from? 55.6% from state. 2.5% Fed. 2.8% other sources. And 39.1% local.

How does our total spending break down? All county operations $18,715,293 = 34.50% of all county spending. Social Services $2,66,708 = 5% of all county spending. Appomattox Public Schools $32, 607,081 = 60.50% of all county spending.

At our board meeting, Jason Tibbs, Appomattox County School finance director, made a presentation on behalf of the school. He sited that the county’s matching school budget contribution of $7,286, 908 was $350,415 short of the state recommended matching fund and would cost the school 1.1 million dollars in state funding, because they would not be able to match the funding in 3 areas.

It is important to understand, the county does not select the programs the school funds. The county gives the lump sum, and the school chooses which programs to fund – Also the school has a fund of local tax dollars with more than their perceived shortfall that they are able to use to fund the difference, if they would choose. No programs need be cut.

So how does this matching fund thing work? The county’s matching fund is $7,286,908 (34.3% of local tax collections). And please understand, State's Required Local Effort for Appomattox County is $5,809,366 and the County funded them $7,286,908, which is $1,477,542 over the state’s requirement. The Schools prioritize how to spend these funds.

This will be the 5th year that the county has given the school over $1M more that the required match. In addition, the last four years the school has had money left over.

However, there is an additional $1,482,333 not included in school operating budget and is absorbed in the county operating budget – for school resource officers -school debt - private day education.

So the actual total “local” contribution to the Appomattox Co School is $8,769,241. Well in excess of the required matching funds. Again, “Required Local Effort” is $5,809,366 –

The grand total from local taxpayer dollars the county contributes to the school, $7,286,908 + $1,482,333 = $8,769,241. Greatly in excess of “required.”

Total local taxpayer’s revenues is $18,356,967. The total contribution to our public school is $8,769,241. Or 48% of all local taxpayer monies.

There seems to be a rumor that the Governor offered another $300,000 if the county would match. No such thing occurred.

There is also an accusation I voted for the renovation of the old courthouse. That began before I was elected to this position. However, rumor mills should check facts, as you are here and I applaud you.

When ACA (Appomattox Christian Academy) started their project at Carver Price where we currently meet, the county needed to find a new board room since that area would be taken over eventually by the new trade school program. In the County square we have the old courthouse building. The building will continue to deteriorate and demolishing the building is an estimated cost of $2 million dollars. Since the county had covid relief money from the Federal govt, that could only be used for specific purposes, the county applied over a million dollars of that money to renovate the hvac/utlities in the old courthouse building. Again, that money could not be used for other purposes besides these types of capital improvements. We have not spent any money on the new board room at this point, and the project will be invoiced as we go, from a capital improvement fund. Again, we either paid millions to have it torn down or we used over a million dollars in Federal earmarked money, plus capital improvement funds to restore it.

Fixing up the old courthouse is much less expensive than building another building. And we should preserve our history. The fact that it was allowed to deteriorate to its current state is appalling to me.

I hope I answered all your questions. Again, thank you for caring.

Articles from the Times Virginian Newspaper written by Charles Conrad in relation to the dispute:

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