VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Virginia Beach City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Aaron Spence is proposing an operating budget of $926,657,635 for the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
Some of that money would go towards teacher pay, new capital improvement projects and school security.
During Tuesday night’s school board meeting, current and retired teachers made higher salary and retention efforts their highest priority.
"The community needs to realize that these accolades don’t come cheap and they don’t happen without employees," said one Virginia Beach math teacher.
Superintendent Spence is putting almost $27 million on the table for teachers. Virginia Beach Education Association President Kathleen Slinde said it’s not enough.
"It is time to make a difference for your employees who continue to make a difference for our students by raising their salaries so that we can retain these individuals who deliver the top SOL test scores in the region," she told the board.
Additionally, Amanda Yarborough said it’s not just teacher pay that concerns her.
"Burnout is real. Paperwork, student behavior, class and caseload sizes, safety concerns," she said, hoping some funding would address those problems.
Part of the proposed budget would also go towards replacing Princess Anne High School and completing other ongoing projects like Achievable Dream Academy at Lynnhaven Middle School.
It's something Paula Chang worries is seeing too much of the money.
"We do not need to build plain boxes for these students; however, they are not temples, they are schools."
The proposed budget would also add an additional 15 English as a second language teachers, $668,000 to fund Security Assistants and adding additional safety measures like two-way radios, new surveillance cameras, and funding a new mass communication and emergency notification system called RAVE.
The final vote on the budget will happen in March.