PORTSMOUTH, Va. — Portsmouth Public Schools asked city council members for $15 million in additional funding, tonight. In a presentation of next year's budget, the division's superintendent Dr. Elie Bracy says that money will go to three major goals, Instructional Program Development, Security and Operations and Employee Retention and Recruitment.
It’s one of the biggest budgets the Portsmouth School Division has ever asked for. The proposed budget for the 2024-25 school year is $210,014,824. It is nearly $20 million higher than last year's budget of $190,285,860.
"There's certain programs and new initiatives that we want to see in place that we think be beneficial to our students. So that's why we're doing,” Bracy said.
In a joint meeting with Portsmouth city council, Portsmouth’s School Board members outlined their needs for the 2024-25 school year. Teacher pay is at the top of the list.
"We got to have teachers and we want to keep our veteran teachers and want to attract teachers to the division,” Bracy said.
Current pay has Portsmouth Public School teachers on a pay scale structure that has new teachers and those with less than 6 years of experience making $54,670.42 and teachers with 15 years or more making $58,640.47.
The bulk of the budget increase would give all employees a 7 percent raise.
About $ 4 million would go towards hiring more staff and finding a new facility for elementary students who are suspended. Dr. Bracy said they're currently housed with high school students and need their own building.
Another $ 2 million would go towards school safety, including division-wide cybersecurity and technology upgrades, and the hiring of more school safety officers.
The proposed budget is based on Governor Glenn Younkin's biennial budget which is a benchmarking year.
After the presentation, a few of the City Council members expressed support for the proposed budget in full.