Supervisors meeting included school funding

The Board of Supervisors approved an additional appropriation of $2.4 million to the Botetourt County Public School system at the August 23, 2022 meeting at the Botetourt County Administration Building at the Botetourt Center at Greenfield.

The monies came from the state and no county funding was involved in the appropriation. The dollars came from the Commonwealth of Virginia as part of the monetary considerations that made up the final FY23 State budget.

This involved $400 million in state grants that were awarded and apportioned to each Virginia school division, with $ 1million as a base grant and additional funds provided based on ADM (Average Daily Membership).

Of the amount given to Botetourt County Schools, approximately $2 million would be targeted for school capital, and the remaining $400,000 would be divided among other instructional areas.

The total amount of the appropriation was $2,410,103.00.

This funding had nothing to do with a recent mix-up that involved the removal of over $4 million in capital improvement dollars from the school budget. Without actually referencing that issue, Valley District Supervisor Mac Scothorn said, “We are supportive of our school system and have been working with Dr. [John] Russ and members of the School Board and look forward to continuing to work with them cooperatively to continue progress.”

He also asked, “. . . the school system to provide a listing of the work that will be done with the new State funds as well as Capital Reserve Funds and the timeline when work will take place so we and the public can know what progress is taking place and when.”

Additionally, he said the County would be, “appropriating $75,000 in new County funding to meet a need for a communication system in Colonial Elementary School that we became aware of last month.”

                                                                        — Anita Firebaugh, Special to The Botetourt Bee