The Mathews County Board of Supervisors, meeting in a special session last Thursday, unanimously approved budget amendments that provide more funding for the school system, the fire department, and the rescue squad, and appropriated the $39.77 million FY2024-2025 budget.

Schools

Funding for the schools increased by $299,305 in order to provide the Mathews County School Board adequate funds to give instructional staff an additional 3 percent raise on top of the 3 percent across-the-board raise already provided all school employees in the previously adopted budget.

County Administrator Ramona Wilson gave a slide presentation illustrating the budget changes she made to come up with the nearly $300,000 increase for the schools. She pointed out that various county departments decreased their budgets, including Mathews Memorial Library, $24,500; the Mathews Registrar and Board of Elections, $21,530; County Administration, $33,000; and Buildings and Grounds, $32,909, for a total of $111,939 in savings. That total was partially offset by areas that required increases, including Emergency Services (in order to make the coordinator a full-time position), $39,674; IT (for the new emergency operations center), $3,000; and the Contingency Fund, $20,507, so the net savings came to $48,757.

Increased revenues of $229,391 were also identified, said Wilson, including $40,000 in increased real estate tax revenues, $150,000 in reimbursed cost allocation funding from Social Services, and an additional $39,391 in state reimbursements to the library. These increased revenues, totaling $229,391, along with a reduced transfer of $21,157 to Social Services, were added to the savings of $48,757 for a total of $299,305 for the schools, she said.

Supervisors’ chair Janice Phillips expressed gratitude to “the people who came forward and sharpened their pencils.” She said it showed they supported the schools, and that supporting each other was a move in the right direction.
Although he ultimately voted for the amendments that funded the schools, supervisor Dave Jones expressed strong reservations about them. He said that an upcoming energy audit of the schools is expected to realize significant savings in energy costs, but that the budget for the schools still included $250,000 for maintenance. On top of that, he said, there will be fewer teachers next year due to moving the eighth grade to the high school, but the school budget doesn’t reflect a reduction for that. He said the school board’s maintenance request was “a fictitious number.”

“Somebody threw that number on the paper,” he said. “All these other people are cutting budgets, but I haven’t seen the schools do the same thing.”

Supervisor Tim Doss said the county didn’t have the funds to give an additional across-the-board increase for schools, but that supervisors had been told that, without a raise for instructional staff, “we would have a catastrophic exit.” He said he could find $800,000 in savings in the school system’s budget himself, and that would be enough money to pay for all the fire department and rescue squad needs and probably give school staff 6 percent across-the-board raises, but he had instead watched as other departments cut their “already super tight” budgets.

Jones said there had been an agreement between the two boards last year that teachers would get a 5 percent pay raise, “but it didn’t happen,” and he said if a raise is funded this year, “I want some commitment from the school board that they’ll follow through.” Neither superintendent Dr. David Daniel nor school board chair Dr. Mari Gibbs, both of whom were present, commented.

Supervisor Tom Bowen said the school board budget is very complicated, and it wasn’t known until last week how much money would be coming from the state. He said that staff reductions will hopefully be addressed through attrition and that the superintendent “has assured us he’s going to focus on future cost savings.” The energy audit is currently in progress, he said, and any future cost savings can “hopefully start to be factored into the budget.”

Jones said that, rather than increase the budget by depleting reserves, he preferred to use supplemental appropriations to address any shortfalls that occur during the year. Doss concurred.

Supervisor Mike Walls said he would like to see any budget surplus in the schools returned to the county.

First responders

Wilson said that some capital improvement projects had to be cut in order to provide additional funding for the Mathews Volunteer Fire Department and Volunteer Rescue Squad.

MVFD had initially asked for $405,000, but the original budget included just $300,000. The amended budget, however, contains $150,000 for operating funds and CIP/Comm. Res. funding of $255,000, restoring the total to $405,000.
MVRS initially requested a total of $648,000, but the original budget cut that to $600,000. The amended budget includes operating funds of $250,000 and CIP/Comm. Res. funding totaling $358,000, leaving the rescue squad still $40,000 shy of its initial request, but Wilson said that MVRS could work with the funding.

To offset the additional $113,000 in funding to the two entities, and to forego the need to transfer $185,413 from the county’s fund balance to complete proposed CIP projects, funding was pulled from pier repair and maintenance ($10,000), public water system planning ($50,000), parking lot and conference room at Social Services ($18,000), hot water tank and burner system for the schools ($150,000), classroom renovations ($50,000), upgrades to the courts ($15,000), vehicle purchase for buildings and grounds ($10,000), and purchase of medic unit and fire truck ($240,000).
Administrator’s final comments

Wilson said that the county currently only has $294,000 in debt service, but with upcoming expenses for such things as the new fire station, school repairs, increased costs for emergency vehicles, and ongoing maintenance dredging, the county will have to either reduce expenses, increase taxes, or increase or diversify the revenue stream.

In other matters, the board:

—Unanimously approved a resolution to allow the county administrator to enter into a contract with DJG Inc. for architectural services for the new MVFD Station 1;
—Voted unanimously to make July 5 a holiday for county staff, in concert with surrounding localities and Mathews courts; and,
—Took no action after a lengthy closed session to discuss “a specific employee” and to consult with legal counsel about 384 Old Ferry Road (Hole in the Wall Waterfront Grill).