During an at-times contentious meeting Tuesday night, several Mathews supervisors took aim at the school board’s draft 2023-2024 budget, a budget that calls for an additional $1.08 million in local funds.

The item that generated the most discussion during the two-and-a-half hour meeting in the Mathews High School media center was a proposal to institute a pre-K program for about a dozen economically disadvantaged 3-year-olds.

The two boards sat facing one another as Superintendent of Schools Nancy Welch gave a brief overview of the budget. Before that began, however, supervisor Mike Walls proposed adding a public comment period at the conclusion of the work session, a proposal that was eventually agreed to by both boards.

The $18.66 million budget is based on an Average Daily Membership of 850, down from the 890 students upon which the current budget is based, Welch said. She provided a chart that showed enrollment decreasing steadily from the 2004-2005 school year (when it w...