Henrico School Board passes $976-million proposed budget that would add more than 100 new positions

The Henrico School Board Feb. 27 approved a proposed budget of nearly $1 billion for the 2026-2027 school year, which will be considered by the Henrico Board of Supervisors later this spring.

The $32-million proposed increase from last year’s budget would add more than 109 new staff positions to HCPS, a sharp contrast to budget proposals from neighboring divisions, with Richmond set to lay off 61 staff members and Hanover to cut several mental health positions.

“I’m so proud of [HCPS] that we’re adding positions,” said board vice-chair Ryan Young (Fairfield District). “We know some school divisions aren’t as fortunate as we are.”

HCPS’ proposed budget would spend about $10 million to add the following:

• 50 more English Learner teachers;
• 27 new exceptional education teachers and instructional assistants;
• 17 new positions for the Living Building at Wilton Farm;
• 14 new elementary positions;
• six new positions for the new Cybersecurity Center:
• five more school counselors;
• five more school maintenance positions.

Despite a slight decrease in student enrollment, the division has continued to increase the budget each year because the number of English Learner students and students with disabilities has steadily grown, with HCPS addressing more intense student needs, said HCPS Chief Financial Officer John Wack.

The division would also add nearly $19 million to this year’s budget to prevent HCPS employees from paying higher healthcare costs. Overall, about 10% of HCPS’ proposed budget goes towards healthcare benefits, said HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell.

“The majority of our budget increase for this year is taking care of our employees by eating that cost ourselves,” said Tuckahoe District board member Marcie Shea. “We’re not adding tons of new stuff, we’re looking at what makes a difference for our employees and taking care of that.”

Speakers express outrage at continued HVAC issues

But widespread HVAC and maintenance issues have remained unaddressed despite the large budget increase, said HCPS parents. Earlier this month, classrooms in seven different elementary schools lost heat in the midst of freezing temperatures, and parents say the HVAC issues impacted even more than the seven schools reported.

Lauren Daniels, who spoke out at the school board’s meeting Thursday, said that the classroom of her second-grader at Twin Hickory Elementary has been without heat since Dec. 1, and she did not receive any communication from HCPS about the issue until Feb. 9.

Classrooms at Ruby F. Carver Elementary also have been without heat since early January, said parent Aaron Billings, who has a daughter at the school.

“Some of these rooms are unacceptably cold,” he said. “Fixing these issues should be more important to the board than it seems to be and it should become a budgetary priority.”

HVAC and building maintenance issues are “very much still a priority” for the school board, said Brookland District member Kristi Kinsella, but much of the school maintenance funding comes from the division’s Capital Improvement Plan, a funding source separate from the main budget and discussed by the board in the fall.

Building maintenance issues have been systemic in HCPS for years, said Skipwith Elementary teacher Lauren Galloway, who said that the school board has failed to properly address these challenges.

“These are not random, occasional instances. This is a persistent problem,” she said. “Every August and September, our buildings are without AC across the county. Every January and February, our buildings are without heat across the county.”

Adding five new skilled trades and leadership positions to the maintenance team is a “critical piece” of HCPS’ proposed budget, said school board chair Madison Irving (Three Chopt District), and HCPS should prioritize competitive pay for these positions.

“When we look back to how we tackled our bus driver shortage, we just paid them more and then people filled the roles,” he said. “This is not different. If we pay them more, we will fill the roles.”

Along with staffing challenges, HCPS’ facilities and maintenance teams also have struggled with rising energy and utility costs. Irving urged the division to look into cost-saving measures such as solar panels and canopies.

“We should not just accept that things are going to increase year over year. We need to think outside the box,” he said. “We know that electricity utilization, if you look at the chart of usage over time in the United States, and especially in Virginia, it’s just going up. So we must do something.”

HCPS expands staff bereavement leave, flexible sick leave

At Thursday’s meeting, the school board also passed new employee leave policies that allow HCPS staff to take more days off in the case of emergencies.

Policy changes expanded the amount of sick days staff can use for bereavement (death and grief-related) leave from two to five days, the amount of flexible sick leave from two to three days, and the total amount of bereavement leave from three to five days.

Staffers also will be able to take as many as eight hours of leave for the death of a non-immediate family member, up to four weeks of paid leave to care for an ill parent, and will receive additional personal leave for every five years they continue to work for HCPS.

The board also passed a new policy that allows employees to take job-protected unpaid leave for an organ or bone marrow donation, with as many as 60 days of leave allowed for organ donation and 30 days allowed for bone marrow donation.

The number of sick days staff are permitted to take each year, which is 10 days for most full-time employees, has remained unchanged.

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.