The Gloucester County School Board unanimously approved to forward a legislative proposal for the Virginia School Boards Association’s consideration that addresses state gaps in alternative education funding. School board member Leonne Arsenovic and superintendent of schools Dr. Anthony Vladu collaborated on the proposal.
“The amount of funding that we’re getting from the state has decreased significantly,” said Arsenovic. “But then our portion of it is increasing. We want to address that and have them reconsider the funding formula for the alternative ed program.”
During the school board’s May meeting, Deputy Superintendent Bryan Hartley gave a presentation on state funding reductions for the iMPACt program, which is a regional alternative education model for students who have not been successful in traditional classroom settings.
The program currently serves Gloucester, Mathews and Middlesex students, but the majority of the participants reside in Gloucester. Gloucester has received a state funding cut of $121,510 for the program.
“We want it to continue,” said Arsenovic. “It’s an important program. It serves a lot of our students. But we just want to make sure that, again, the greater burden of the cost isn’t on us.”
Meeting on Tuesday night in the T.C. Walker Education Center auditorium, school board unanimously voted to forward the proposal to VSBA for consideration. Arsenovic will attend the VSBA Legislative Advocacy Conference in July to support the proposal. If approved, the VSBA will use the proposal in its lobbying efforts with the state.
End-of-year update
Vladu provided end-of-year statistics for the 2025-2026 academic year to the school board. The school buses traveled over 1,058,000 miles and made 645,873 stops. Drivers logged more than 75,344 hours behind the wheel. Thirty-seven sets of brake shoes were replaced, which represents a little more than half of the district’s fleet. For food service, 202,152 breakfasts and 361,262 lunches were served across the eight schools.
“I want to also commend the senior class for earning almost $2 million in scholarships,” he said. “The exact number is $1,911,459. Those are opportunities that are earned through grades. Those are merit-based opportunities.”
Vladu also spoke about the students who passed their standards of learning exams this year, many of which are required from the state for students to graduate from high school.
SOL academic achievements include 286 ninth graders earning their verified credit in math, 273 students passing their biology SOL and 297 11th graders earning a verified credit in either reading or writing.
Vladu also provided preliminary statistics for the seniors who graduated Sunday. Ninety-two percent of the seniors who started Gloucester High School in ninth grade have now graduated with 12 additional students attending summer school to finish their diploma requirements.
“I come to you in gratitude and to our staff for a well done, great job this year,” said Vladu. “They’re an asset to our community and they make our community better in every single way.”