Henrico supervisors frustrated they can't hold school system accountable in specific ways

Henrico supervisors Monday morning began their annual weeklong budget review with praise for the way county employees and leaders navigated the past year of pandemic-infused challenges. But they also expressed frustration with their own inability to hold the county’s school system accountable in specific ways, and with a lack of state funding for state prisoners Henrico is housing.

Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas earlier this month proposed a $1.43-billion operating budget and $224-million capital budget, which supervisors will consider approving later this spring.

The budget proposal includes a $983.9-million general fund, of which about 57% is directed to the elected Henrico School Board, which then has full authority to spend that money however it sees fit.

That’s always been the case, but four supervisors Monday expressed frustration with the reality that they hold no oversight over whether that money results in the educational outcomes they desire – and no ability to take action if it doesn’t (other than theoretically reducing education funding in the future, which seems highly unlikely).

“I think I know one of the reasons why we don’t have the total harmony that we could have," Fairfield District Supervisor Frank Thornton said. "My believe is that’s because one group has to come ask the other group for funding. I do think that there should be more accountability on the part of the education sector. We always give – now maybe in the future, we have to take a look at that.”

Varina District Supervisor Tyrone Nelson agreed, expressing a frustration he said he’s had during his decade or so on the board.

“That’s been my struggle,” Nelson said. “That’s consistently been my theme. . . I would love to have that accountability conversation, though we can’t hold them accountable. The voters have to hold them [accountable].”

Many constituents assume that supervisors are responsible for individual school spending plans, operations or achievement levels, he said.

“A greater majority of our citizens don’t delineate the responsibility,” he said. “People expect us to be able to do something about it.”

Board Chair and Brookland Supervisor Dan Schmitt echoed the sentiments.

“It’s a lot of money, and let’s face it – our constituents come to us, and they say ‘Well you keep funding them! You keep giving them that money, so you should be able to ask questions,’ Schmitt said. “And I struggle to answer those questions. I’m not going to not fund schools, I’ll tell you that right now – none of us are. [But] we’ve got to be able to ask those questions.”

Three Chopt District Supervisor Tommy Branin took issue with comments made by a “young board member from the School Board who wanted to put that accountability on a different group instead of themselves” during a recent joint work session between the two boards. “I was perplexed for days after listening to a lengthy speech about accountability, when the accountability was on them, not a particular segment of a tool in their toolbox.”

Varina District School Board representative Alicia Atkins, one of three first-term members of the board, was the only who spoke at length during the work session, but it was unclear immediately whether Branin’s remarks were directed at her comments that day.

“I hesitate in ever thinking that this board would ever say that we would not want to fund [schools], because we understand the importance of our schools,” Branin said, “but I will. . . ditto the sentiment that it’s time. It’s time that they become accountable for the education of our children.”

Supervisors did not describe any specific issues of concern with the school system, though Nelson mentioned in general that some schools in his district are underperforming.

Henrico forced to incur most costs of holding state inmates

During Monday’s session, supervisors also expressed frustration with the fact that the county is required to hold and care for state inmates while being reimbursed for a tiny fraction of the actual cost to Henrico.

About 40% of Henrico’s daily inmate population at its two jails currently is composed of the 523 state inmates it’s holding, Deputy County Manager for Administration Brandon Hinton told supervisors. But while it costs the county $92 a day to hold and care for them, the state reimburses Henrico just $12 per inmate per day.

Over the course of a full year, that would amount to a budget shortfall of about $15.5 million – money that Henrico must find itself. Projections show that by the end of June, the county could have as many as 600 state prisoners in its jails, Hinton said.

“This is just outrageous,” said Tuckahoe Supervisor Pat O’Bannon.

“This bothers me,” Schmitt said. “This is troublesome for me. Seventeen-and-a-half million dollars of like, ‘Here take em, and we’ll come get em when we want?’ . . . This is no longer a favor.”

Vithoulkas agreed and told supervisors that he wants to hold a work session with members of the General Assembly who represent Henrico County to make them aware of the situation in the hope that they will take action. He suggested that the pandemic had perhaps made it easier for state officials to pawn off the prisoners on Henrico and other localities.

“With COVID, the excuse became really easy – ‘We can’t move ‘em,’” Vithoulkas said.