The Mathews Board of Supervisors and Mathews School Board seemed closer to a consensus on school funding at the end of a joint budget workshop held last Thursday afternoon in the historic courthouse.

Originally looking at a budget of $9.4 million for FY2026-2027, the school board reduced its request for local funding to $9.1 million before a joint budget workshop held on Feb. 24. But, with County Administrator Ramona Wilson’s budget allowing just $8.5 million for schools, the two boards at that time appeared to be at an impasse.

At the beginning of last week’s meeting, supervisors’ chair Tom Bowen said he hoped the two boards could address “some difficult issues,” including the possibility of the school board raising additional funds by charging for school lunches, lab fees, gym fees and other costs. He said he thought the two boards could “come up with a fair budget that will not jeopardize the progress the schools have made.”

Mathews School Board chair Dr. Mari Gibbs said she appreciated the “collaborative efforts of both boards.” But she said she did not want lack of adequate funding to affect the progress made by the schools “just when we’re seeing hard-won traction taking hold.”

Superintendent Dr. David Daniel provided the board with demographics for the school system, including that the schools’ 783 students are served by 157 full-time and 26 part-time employees. He said that 21 percent of students qualify for special education, 8 percent qualify for a 504 plan (which provides students with accommodations for their disabilities), 43 percent are economically disadvantaged, and 3 percent are English language learners.

Daniel shared three scenarios for funding besides the original one for $9.4 million that had already been pared down. He said that $9.1 million would be level funding from the county and would allow for an increase of 1 percent on the current salary scale, plus a step increase of 1 percent. In addition, it would allow for an increase of 6 percent for teacher assistants and it would include a 10 percent increase in the cost of employer-provided health insurance, with 5-15 percent of those new costs passed on to employees. It would also include matching funds for a school resource officer grant.

Funding of $8.5 million would require a number of reductions, said Daniel, including removing the school resource officer grant from the school budget and placing it in other department budgets, doing away with in-person summer school, removing six full-time and two part-time positions (five full-time positions are currently vacant, he said), and changing one contract from 11 months to 10 months.

Additionally, he said, there would be less money to transfer to food service; more of the cost of health insurance would be passed on to employees; and teacher assistants would receive only a 2 percent raise (1 percent plus step). There would also be decreases in various other areas.

Reducing teaching positions requires other people to pick up more responsibilities and reduces options available to students, said Daniel, including impacting prerequisite classes and career pathways. The transportation director is retiring, he said, and not filling impact options such as field trips and travel to sports games.

Gains in salary made over the past two years have allowed the schools to compete with other divisions for qualified teachers, he said, but a possible large difference in the cost of health insurance this year is also something staff takes into consideration.

The handout Daniel provided showed that if the county were to provide $8.7 million, all the conditions would be the same as for $8.5 million, but only four full-time positions would be impacted rather than six.

At Wilson’s request, Daniel addressed the revenue side of the budget, saying he had looked at requesting increased reimbursements for Meals on Wheels, increasing rental fees for using the auditorium, and charging non-district residents tuition.

There was a bit of wrangling between supervisor Tim Doss and Daniel over such questions as how many of the 183 school system employees hold instructional versus non-instructional positions, how much money could be saved if the six full-time and two part-time positions were cut, and what the difference in cost would be for teaching assistants to receive a 3 percent raise rather than 2 percent or 6 percent. The only number Daniel offered was that the total cost of a 2 percent raise for all employees would be $176,000.

“You have things listed, but no dollar amounts,” said Doss. “I want to know how much you’ll save at 8.5, 8.7. I would like a dollar amount assigned to each.”

Supervisor Janice Phillips pressed Daniel for answers, as well, saying, “You obviously went through the process of doing it, you should surely know.”

But Daniel said he would have to “move things around quite a bit to come up with answers,” and that his board has to weigh in on priorities and make decisions about how funds are allocated.

“They might want us to find a different way to reach the amount,” he said.

Clearly frustrated, Doss said, “I’m trying to get justification to go higher, but I can’t do that without numbers.”

Daniel explained that he and his board had been waiting to see what the supervisors would be comfortable with, “then start hammering out what to do with the number the county can allocate for the schools.”

School board member Amy Bohannon-Stewart expressed concern about teacher retention. A former Mathews teacher herself, she said that reducing support positions creates more work for the remaining employees, and “you lose people.”

Supervisor Pat Beattie said that special education costs in Mathews are higher than the state average, and he asked what the cost was. Daniels gave ballpark figures for salaries for a special ed teacher and teacher assistant of $80,000 and $22,000 respectively, and said a bus route might have to be added to pick up a student, requiring a driver and an aide. Beattie asked if the cost were around a quarter million, and Daniels said that was “fair.”

Beattie also questioned whether keeping teaching assistants was important, and Daniels said, “It’s a critical piece.” He said TAs “do a dozen discrete things during the day and are pulled in a lot of different directions.” He said he’d tried decreasing the number of TAs to improve salaries for the remaining ones, but it hadn’t been successful and there was still a high turnover. He said he’d like to improve their compensation and provide more training. In response to a question from Bowen, he said a 6 percent pay raise for TAs would cost around $20,000 to $30,000.

Supervisor David Walsh questioned the funding the schools provide for summer school and other services.

“Does everybody pay for that, or do we say, ‘your child needs this, you need to pay for it,’” he said. “If you’re the individual needing the service, I believe you should be paying.”

Bowen asked school board members what they thought of the $8.7 million funding option in terms of academic achievement and retention, and Gibbs said she could live with $8.7 million, but she couldn’t live with $8.5 million because “we would lose traction for years to come” and would be risking stability. “The 6 percent for the TAs is critical,” she said.

School board member Calvin Morgan agreed, saying, “Having been a teacher, I can’t begin to explain how important support is.” A 2 percent raise would provide a TA with an extra $400 or so a year, “and that’s not really meaningful,” he said.

Doss said he agreed with everything that had been said, “but I need the numbers,” while Phillips said she wasn’t opposed to 8.7, “but I expect numbers.”

Bowen said, “It’s critical to support the schools so they can retain the progress they’ve made. To me, that’s $8.7 million, plus $20,000–30,000 for the TAs. I don’t think it’s that hard to get there.”

When looking at the county budget, said Bowen, the board added back in the $200,000 that the county administrator had cut, but he was willing to remove that funding once again. The county could increase the meals tax to generate that much revenue, he said. While the projected $12 million bond issue the county is considering for capital needs would require a 2 cent per $100 of assessed value increase in the real estate tax rate, he said there wouldn’t have to be an increase in the real estate tax to fund the regular budget.

“A 6 percent meals tax won’t stop anybody from going out to eat,” he said. “We need to sharpen our pencils, look at county expenses, increase the meals tax, and come back with $8.7 million.”