Henrico Board of Supervisors set to approve 91 new school postitions; some school board members still advocating for 153

Ding!

On April 6, all 8,000 Henrico Schools staffers received an email from the Henrico Education Association, the division’s union for educators, with an urgent message:

“This year, the Board of Supervisors has denied several crucial budget requests from HCPS that will be detrimental to our students’ success,” the email read. “In total, HCPS requested 153 new positions, but only 91 positions were incorporated into the county’s proposed budget.”

The message urged HCPS staff to reach out to the Henrico Board of Supervisors and advocate for funding for all 153 positions – before the board will vote on the proposed budget this Tuesday: “These are not extras – they are essential for student success, equity, and compliance,” the email read.

Two days later, Three Chopt District Supervisor Misty Roundtree posted a video response to the email, saying she wanted to “dispel the incorrect information” that the HEA had “inadvertently” sent out after she received a number of emails from concerned teachers. The full 153 positions “were not asked for” by HCPS in its budget presentation to the board of supervisors on March 18, she said, but were “discussed” among HCPS officials earlier this year.

“I didn’t know anything about this letter, all I knew is that over the past few days, I had been getting emails from teachers saying, ‘Why aren’t you fully funding our positions?’” Roundtree said in the video. “We were presented a budget in March that asked for 91 positions. . . this is a budget being presented to us by the superintendent and the school board, so we have to believe that their recommendations or proposals for that staffing are based upon where they’ve decided the money best needs to go.”

After a phone call with HEA president Terry Jones, Roundtree said that she believes the “erroneous information” likely stemmed from “somebody beyond just, for example, reading the Henrico Citizen articles or looking at budget documents.”

But Jones said that the information in the email came from those exact sources: a Citizen article on the joint county-schools budget meeting and the county’s proposed 2026-2027 budget document.

“It was accurate information,” Jones said. “And we wanted to make sure that not just our HEA members, but all educators in HCPS knew about it and advocated on behalf of our students.”

This Tuesday, Aprril 14, at the board of supervisors’ 6 p.m. meeting, Roundtree said she intends to approve the county’s proposal for 91 new school staff positions.

“We intend, on Tuesday, to approve the existence of these positions,” she said. “So that the process can then go forward with the funding, hopefully in a non-controversial way. The way that it’s done all the time.”

School officials: We did ask for all 153 new staff positions

The internal mechanisms of the county’s school funding process began this past fall with frequent discussions between County Manager John Vithoulkas and HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell, according to Roundtree. But the public side of that process was initiated on Jan. 22 when Cashwell presented a recommended budget to the Henrico School Board – one that proposed 153 new staff positions for the 2026-2027 school year.

The school board subsequently approved Cashwell’s proposed budget on Feb. 26. But after the county learned that it would likely receive less money than projected from the state this year, Vithoulkas instructed every county department, including schools, to revise their proposed budgets by a 3% reduction.

Vithoulkas, at a Fairfield District public forum on April 9, emphasized that the 3% reduction was “not a cut” to the budget, but instead a requirement for departments to “save three cents out of every dollar.” The overall county budget would still increase by 3.4% from last year, and the schools budget would increase by about 3%. 

“We need to make sure that we live within our means, because we don’t know what else is coming,” Vithoulkas said. “I am seeing things on the macroeconomic level that I’ve never seen.”

Cashwell then met with her school budget team to make the decision to whittle down the original 153 positions-request to a request for only 91 positions – a decision she ran by the school board, according to the school board’s chair, Madison Irving (Three Chopt District). 

The updated proposal, which Cashwell and the school board presented to the board of supervisors on March 18, reduced the original ask for 50 new English Learner teachers and 27 new exceptional education staff to just 20 new English Learner teachers and 7 new special education staff.

“When it’s said, ‘We never asked for all of the positions’ – well, we did. They were approved as part of the school board budget [on Feb. 26],” said HCPS spokesperson Eileen Cox. “But we also knew that cuts were needed and that it was necessary for us to do our part as good financial stewards, working with the county and the county manager, to recognize that there was a lower amount going to be available.”

But tension clearly was present between the county supervisors and school board members at their joint budget hearing. Both Cashwell and school board members highlighted that by adding only 20 new EL teachers, the division would be out of compliance with Virginia’s required pupil-to-teacher ratio for EL students – HCPS would need about 100 more EL teachers to be in compliance.

School board member Alicia Atkins (Varina District) said she stands by HCPS’ original budget proposal – one that funds all 153 new positions – which she says the school board “developed and approved based on real operational needs.” The county’s proposal “cuts that request,” she said, “despite the clear justification we provided.”

“The board of supervisors cannot say they prioritize education while simultaneously underfunding the very people and resources required to deliver it,” Atkins said. “The school board’s budget is built on facts, not extras. Every dollar requested is tied directly to a real need in our schools — and I simply want the county to honor that.”

The school board’s proposed budget “speaks for itself,” said Irving, and is what both Cashwell and school board members believe is necessary for the 2026-2027 school year.

“We passed a budget on February 26 that outlined what we wanted to see for the next fiscal year, and I believe that we all stand by that,” he said. “I don’t think that anything has changed in our view in terms of what we think would be best.”

County: we did not cut any new positions

Since the HEA’s email, supervisors have come out to defend the county’s budget proposal for schools. 

While only 91 positions would be actively funded, the other 62 positions would be placed in a reserve complement until additional funding is identified – which could be as soon as May or June once the state’s official budget is passed. But county and schools officials are still uncertain as to how much more funding – or whether any additional funding at all – could come from the state.

“The board of supervisors did not cut any positions,” said board chair Roscoe Cooper (Fairfield District). “They have not been cut, they have not been discarded, they have not been erased. They are still there, but as we stated, the decrease from the state put the schools in the positions where that revenue was not afforded.”

Additional funding to HCPS will be the priority if more money comes from the state, said Vithoulkas.

“If there are additional resources [from the state], then that’s easy, that’s an appropriation to the schools,” said Vithoulkas. “If there’s any funding that we can identify that can be allocated so we can actually fill the positions, then you know that’ll happen.”

At Thursday’s Fairfield District forum, Vithoulkas, Cooper, and Fairfield District school board member Ryan Young presented a face of unity between the county and schools, emphasizing the strong partnership between Cooper and Young and how it was representative of the county-schools relationship as a whole.

“It’s very clear, despite what some of you all may hear, that there is a strong shared commitment between the school board and the board of supervisors,” said Young. “I have never called Reverend Cooper with an issue or something that we can’t figure out and can’t do together.”

But on the screen behind both Young and Cooper was a budget presentation that highlighted the difference between the two budget proposals: “20 ELL teachers (down from 50 initially requested); 7 Exceptional education teachers and instructional assistants (down from 27 initially requested).”

If anything, the joint budget presentation between county and schools officials in March was an illustration of some of the current dysfunction between the board of supervisors and the school board, according to Atkins.

“During this joint budget session, there were multiple examples of disrespectfulness and dysfunction,” she said. “Honestly, it frustrates me when the conversation drifts into ill-will or politics.”

“It is contradictory to show up to a ribbon-cutting for the new Living Building school, shake hands, take photos – and then turn around and refuse to fund the staff required to actually open its doors,” Atkins continued. “We cannot celebrate progress with one hand and defund it with the other.”

More ESL and special education students have come to HCPS

English Learners and exceptional education students are two of HCPS’ most vulnerable populations – and also two student groups that have significantly grown in HCPS during the past few years, said Jones, who is a special education teacher at CodeRVA Regional High school.

“Yes, the population overall in our district is going down, but that doesn’t mean that the needs are going down,” he said. “We still have more kids who are qualifying for IEPs and 504 plans. So we need those positions filled.”

From 2022 to 2025, HCPS’ English Learner population has grown about 22% and the division’s population of students with disabilities has grown 5%. And HCPS has struggled to keep up with English Learner and special education staffing to address the high needs of these student populations, said Jones.

“Special education caseloads have just become way too unwieldy for people. When the caseloads get bigger, you can’t give the amount of time to your individual students on your caseload,” he said. “And instructional assistants really, really matter when you have a self-contained classroom and are dealing with students who have very high special needs status.”

Cashwell’s decision to apply the 3% reduction to those 62 positions was based upon the high cost of salaries for 50 English Learner teachers and 27 exceptional education staff, according to Irving. 

“Because that was the greatest proportional part of our staffing request, it also was going to have the greatest reduction,” said HCPS spokesperson Cox. “It doesn’t mean that those positions aren’t needed and aren’t essential. It just means that we’re aware that a reduction needed to be made and we’re trying to be good partners.”

The 91 positions adopted in the county’s budget proposal are not enough to meet the needs of Henrico’s students and teachers, said Atkins. 

“When we cut staffing funding, we aren’t trimming fat – we’re asking real people to absorb the loss,” she said. “I’ve seen what happens when we shortchange classrooms – teachers burn out, students fall through the cracks, and we spend years trying to recover ground we never should have lost.”

But Roundtree said that the board of supervisors is committed to making sure the schools “have what they need” and said she is confused as to why “it’s being construed that that is not the case or that we have denied funding.” The board of supervisors would have been receptive if the school board advocated for the full 153 position during the joint budget meeting, she said.

“If it had been presented to us with, ‘Hey, we are keeping these 153 positions in our budget, and this is imperative,’ that would not have fallen on deaf ears,” Roundtree said. “We’re still going to ask questions about if money is being spent in other areas than where it needs to be. . . not that we’re questioning the need for teachers, but we can’t just keep adding money without taking a look to see if where we’re spending the money is effective.”

County officials need to be clear with HCPS on why reductions are being made to the school budget and why HCPS is not immediately receiving all of the funding initially requested by the school board, said Atkins.

“Look, I get that everyone around the table has pressures I don’t fully see. I’m not dismissing that,” she said. “However, at some point there needs to be a very clear response on who or what is benefiting from the reduction and how decisions are made regarding holding funds in reserves.”

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s government and education reporter. Support her work and articles like this one by making a contribution to the Citizen.