The Mathews County School Board unanimously adopted its 2022-2023 budget during its special year-end meeting on Thursday morning in the school board conference room.

While the board approved the amended budget by a 5-0 vote, several members indicated were not happy with what they said had been erroneously termed “level funding.”

To call it level funding is “ludicrous,” school board member John Priest said. Schools superintendent Nancy Welch pointed out that five instructional positions have been lost to attrition and not replaced, with some of the savings going to fund a 2.5 percent raise (1.5 percent raise, plus step on the salary scale), and the rest being used to offset rising costs due to inflation and skyrocketing fuel prices.

The five positions not replaced in this budget include one CTE teacher and two special education teachers at Thomas Hunter Middle School and a teacher and teacher assistant at Mathews Elementary.

Aware of the pending budget crunch, Welch did not...