Henrico receives higher teacher raises but no further school funding in state budget
Virginia’s General Assembly approved a two-year budget after months of negotiations, passing a 4% raise for teachers that will apply to Henrico Schools teachers.
Compared to the 2026-2027 budget passed by the county in April, the state’s approved budget will provide about $4.9 million more to Henrico in order to compensate for higher teacher wages, with the county paying an additional $1.2 million as a part of the $6.1-million raise.
The county’s budget awarded teachers a 3% raise, but officials will make the additional 1% adjustment before the start of the school year.
What the state’s budget did not provide was extra funding for other HCPS priorities, such as more English Learner and exceptional educational teachers.
The Local Composite Index for Henrico, which measures how much a locality is able to contribute to its own budget and therefore how much it will receive from the state, was not changed with the approved state budget, said Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas. That means that the county will not receive a higher percentage of state aid.
That LCI, and the resulting lack of state education aid, was the main reason the county had to implement a 3% reduction across all department budgets, including schools, said Vithoulkas. When tasked with implementing the 3% reduction, HCPS officials cut 62 positions, the majority being EL and special education positions, from the 153 new staff positions HCPS initially planned to add.
When passing the county budget back in April, HCPS officials said that they were optimistic that “most if not all” of the 62 positions could be restored this upcoming year with additional state aid. Now that the state budget has been released without the extra funding boost, HCPS will monitor other funding sources or the possibility of any additional state aid throughout the year, said HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell.
“While it doesn’t appear that enough state aid will be available specifically for these positions, we will continue to prioritize the additional positions as we go into the school year,” Cashwell said. “HCPS will [consider] the shifts we have seen in overall student enrollment as well as the makeup of programmatic needs of our student population. Specific school staffing is adjusted during the school year as needed to account for these factors.”
During a contentious round of budget discussions between the Henrico School Board and Board of Supervisors earlier this spring, school board members emphasized that while the overall student enrollment of HCPS has plateaued in recent years, the number of high-needs students, such as English Learners who speak little to no English and exceptional education students with more severe disabilities, have increased.
Leaders with the Henrico Education Association, the county’s educator union, also urged the board of supervisors to add funding for the 62 positions in the county budget. But supervisors said that the school board could easily fund the positions using their given budget by shifting only $6 million in funding.
On June 23, the board of supervisors approved a resolution appropriating all of the funds from the $1.99-billion county budget passed in April. Board Chair Roscoe Cooper (Fairfield District) also said that county staff intends to bring forward an amendment to add the 4% teacher raises to the budget at a future meeting.
“We are grateful to the General Assembly for passing a budget yesterday, which came with a surprise funding for a 4% salary increase for state-supported school employees,” Cooper said. “These additional resources will allow the board of supervisors to increase raises for teachers and school staff from 3% to 4% next fiscal year.”
Cashwell said that the “unanticipated boost” will help HCPS’ recruitment and retention efforts and ensure competitive compensation for the division’s “valued employees.”
The $4.9 million in additional state funding was appropriated specifically for staff raises and cannot be used for other HCPS priorities, said Vithoulkas.
The board of supervisors also approved the appropriation of $9 million in meals tax funding to go towards 40 capital improvement projects, including painting upgrades, gym floor replacements, intercom improvements, security upgrades, and pavement restoration, for 28 different schools.
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.
