SHENANDOAH COUNTY, Va. (WHSV) - On Thursday, school superintendents from around the Shenandoah Valley met with local legislators to discuss the challenges each division is facing during the pandemic.
The virtual discussion was part of the Virginia School Boards Association annual Bring Your Legislator to School event and hosted by Shenandoah County Public Schools.
Superintendents from Warren, Shenandoah, Page, Rockingham and Harrisonburg all described similar issues.
“The five superintendents represented here, we share many of the same challenges. They may be a little different in each location in where we are, but they are very similar,” Mark Johnston, superintendent of Shenandoah County Public Schools, said.
One of those challenges is the concern for how much money schools will receive from local sales tax. Oskar Scheikl, superintendent of Rockingham County Public Schools, said every school division has also seen a decrease in attendance.
Scheikl said some families have decided to hold off this year for kindergarten, and some have decided to go another route for schooling, like private schools.
“In Rockingham County, we’re talking about more than 400 students, and so there we’re talking more than $2 million in terms of money that’s not there,” Scheikl said.
Scheikl is asking that, despite having fewer students enrolled this year, the state stick with their budget for the upcoming school year.
Average Daily Membership (ADM) is one way the state looks at distributing funds to each school division in the Commonwealth.
School divisions are also asking legislators to be more flexible with money given during the pandemic.
Michael Richards, superintendent of Harrisonburg City Public Schools, said they are all thankful for funding that’s been given. But one of the biggest hits was pausing the construction of the new Harrisonburg High School.
Richards said the old high school is still overcrowded, and having students eventually come back will be even more of a challenge during the pandemic.
“We’re still of course very worried that when we start to bring more of our secondary students back, they’re going into facilities that are not set up for a pandemic,” Richards said.
Page County expressed the need for broadband internet, one-to-one devices and more educators. Wendy Gonzalez, superintendent of Page County Public Schools, said the pandemic has made it even more difficult to keep retiring and hire new teachers.
“It’s harder now because we can’t get substitutes,” Gonzalez said. “So when we have to quarantine teachers, we also struggle to keep our buildings open based on just the staff shortage.”
At the end of the meeting, each legislator had the opportunity to address the concerns and give an update on what’s being done by the state.
24th District State Senator Emmett Hanger said the state is looking at ways to backfill money that was lost through local sales tax. He also said in the coming days, the General Assembly will adopt budget actions where they plan to authorize $220 million of CARES funding for Virginia schools.
Copyright 2020 WHSV. All rights reserved.
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Valley school superintendents meet with local legislators - WHSV
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