Following the adoption of the Gloucester budget by county supervisors on April 30, the Gloucester County School Board came back to readopt unanimously its fiscal year 2027 budget in the amount of $82,967,759 during its regular monthly meeting, which was held Tuesday night in the T.C. Walker Education Center auditorium.
The county’s adopted budget includes an additional schools’ contribution of $2,937,286 from FY26, but only $2,387,621 has been appropriated. The remaining $549,665 will be considered once the state finalizes its budget.
The school board first adopted its FY27 budget in March at $84.3 million, contingent on local and state dollars. Superintendent of Schools Dr. Anthony Vladu presented his updated recommended budget to the school board during Tuesday’s meeting, which included ways the district has found to save.
The Virginia Retirement System rate decrease ($988,763), staffing attrition ($1,018,822) and miscellaneous non-payroll adjustments ($107,079) will save the school system $2.1 million, Vladu explained.
School districts receive state funding based on their Average Daily Membership. Gloucester’s budget has been built on an ADM of 4,454 students, which is a decrease of more than 100 students compared to FY26. This has resulted in GCPS losing approximately $1.5 million in state funding.
“We get funded per pupil,” he said.
To help cope with the decrease in enrollment, GCPS has removed 16 full-time positions. These 16 positions represent unfilled vacancies.
“No one’s losing their jobs,” assured Vladu.
Another state budgeting metric is the Local Composite Index, which measures a locality’s capacity to pay into its school system. The LCI has continued to trend upwards in Gloucester since FY15.
“It means that Gloucester is becoming more affluent,” said Vladu.
For FY27, Gloucester is expected to pay 40.7 cents for every dollar while the state contributes the remaining 59.3 cents. This is a loss of approximately $350,000 of state funding from FY26.
There are several items not being funded for FY27 that were originally approved by the school board. These include new Chromebooks, a career and technical education coordinator position, signage for Page Middle School and the transportation department, a new John Deere mower, and one teacher coach position.
“Those are the things that came off because of the gap,” said Vladu.
He mentioned that the teacher coach position would have been a positive addition to GCPS since the district supports the creation of new teachers through starting interested employees as substitutes and paraprofessionals.
“That’s the new model of staffing schools,” said Vladu.
The school board voted to unanimously reapprove its FY27 budget. The board of supervisors will decide on additional appropriation of funds once the state approves its final budget.
Alternative education
Deputy Superintendent Bryan Hartley presented information on the state funding reductions for the iMPACt program, which is a regional alternative education model for students who have not been successful in the traditional classroom.
This program currently serves Gloucester, Mathews and Middlesex students. “The majority of those are Gloucester students,” said Hartley.
Gloucester has received a state funding cut of $121,510 for the program. “Everyone’s slots were reduced,” said Vladu. “We were completely blindsided.”
Hartley said that reserve funding from FY26 may be available to fund the program for the upcoming school year, but a long-term solution for the future of the program is needed.
“There is a considerable expense,” he said.
The primary cost drivers include personnel, supervisory services, software licensing and instructional materials. GCPS also spends about $12,000 annually on iMPACt student transportation.
Students in the program receive individualized instruction, small-group instruction, behavior support, and reading and writing intervention. The 56 students enrolled in the program for the 2025-2026 school year achieved a 100 percent success rate, meaning that they either graduated or are able to return to a traditional school setting.
“Those are pretty significant and impressive rates,” said Hartley.
Though GCPS may be fine for next school year, the board will need to consider the future of the program. Options could include developing a hybrid instructional model to incorporate both in-person and virtual learning, transitioning to a fully virtual model, making alternative education services the sole responsibility of the individual school divisions or phasing out the program completely and transitioning students to other local supports.
“Conversations need to start happening,” he said. “We need to start planning now.”
In next steps, the district will find out if reserve funding will be available to at least fund iMPACt through the 2026-2027 school year.
“I think we need to do our very best to maintain it,” said school board member Leonne Arsenovic.