The proposed Orange County Public Schools’ Budget is one that focuses on salary increases while tackling the rising costs of insurance, utilities and fuel.
Last week, superintendent Dr. Dan Hornick presented an approximately $77.9 million operating fund draft FY2027 budget that offers a 3% staff raise and offers an additional $1,500 bonus. Both are offset by funding proposed in the preliminary Senate and House budgets, with the bonus requiring an approximately $670,000 local match. Other proposed increases include stipend adjustments for buddies and mentors ($21,000) and new sports assistant coach stipends ($11,000). Similar to other local divisions, Orange County is seeing an increase in the special education student population, causing a $391,000 increase in associated services. Cameras are being switched to cloud based systems requiring a subscription increase of $70,000, offset somewhat by not having to purchase servers and other equipment needed to store footage. Approximately $20,000 is included for middle school band instrument replacements with $10,000 allotted to each school.
Increases in fuel and utility costs are a major budget contributor at $220,000 and the school system hopes to absorb a 21% health insurance increase ($1.25 million) instead of passing it on to employees.
“That’s a significant hurdle,” Hornick said. “Last year, the rate increase was 15%. It has a budgetary impact.”
The budget is also one that Hornick said tries to find opportunities for savings. The Virginia Retirement System (VRS) contribution rate has decreased, resulting in a savings of approximately $457,000. Also, due to a decreasing student population, there are some positions that won’t be needed, resulting in a net savings of $305,000. Hornick didn’t elaborate on which positions may be impacted or how many.
In terms of capital improvement projects, five regular buses will be purchased along with two new special needs buses at a total cost of approximately $1.2 million. This is a bit less than the current year as eight buses were purchased. Approximately $778,000 is budgeted for facility improvements, HVAC and energy saving improvements, roofing improvements, athletic facilities and grounds improvements and custodial and grounds equipment replacements.
The proposed operating budget utilizes approximately $3.2 million in federal funding, an increase from the FY26 adopted budget of approximately $215,000 and approximately $45 million in state funding, an increase of approximately $2.1 million. Approximately $28.2 million is requested in local funding, approximately $3.5 million more than the FY26 adopted budget, but only approximately $2 million from the revised FY26 budget. During the budget year, approximately $1.2 million in local funding was added.
The local request could change as the General Assembly isn’t expected to finalize a state budget until after it reconvenes in April. The proposed school budget is currently built on the more conservative of the House and Senate proposals.
“It’s better to plan for the worst as far as what state revenue would look like and hope for an outcome that provides better state revenue,” Hornick said.
District 3 board member Jack Rickett said not having all of the information at the state level makes it difficult for localities to make their own budget decisions.
“It puts a lot of unknowns into our local budget,” he said.
The school board held a special called meeting Monday, March 23 to receive comments on the proposed budget. No one spoke.
