New funding for Henrico Schools could produce ‘transformative results,’ county leaders say

Henrico County has received a big boost in revenue from the data center industry, and both county and school officials are looking to invest a significant amount of it into Henrico Schools.

At a joint meeting Oct. 22, Henrico Board of Supervisors Chairman Tyrone Nelson encouraged Henrico School Board members to take advantage of extra funding the county could provide during the coming year, saying the money could give schools “the opportunity to do something major.” On Oct. 24, school board chair Alicia Atkins announced that the school board’s top priority with the new funding would be increasing HCPS employee salaries. 

County officials have not shared how much extra revenue has been made available and how much will be allocated toward schools but so far have dedicated the first tranche of $60 million from data center tax revenue to the Henrico Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

“The lion’s share of the current [funding] amount is going to affordable housing,” Nelson said. “The school superintendent and county manager will determine, based upon whatever additional need for the time, what’s spent [on the schools] and where it comes from…we have a lot of pots where money comes from.”

Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas, who has been meeting “consistently” with HCPS Superintendent Amy Cashwell to plan the 2025-2026 county budget, said that the board of supervisors has labeled the schools as its “top funding priority” for this year, as they have in past years.

“As in prior years, the expectation that our board of supervisors has placed on me is that the majority of our revenues be allocated to our schools,” Vithoulkas said. “Reverend Nelson, Supervisor [Dan] Schmitt, and our new members of the board of supervisors have been clear from day one regarding funding for HCPS. This is their top funding priority.”

Along with increasing employee salaries, Atkins said that the school board’s other priorities with the funding would include expanding the “Opportunity Schools” initiative to more schools and completing capital projects such as school rebuilds and needed building maintenance. 

Currently, 10 schools are designated as Opportunity Schools, meaning that they receive additional resources and staff, and licensed instructional staff at these schools receive a $3,300 bonus each year. Schools selected for the initiative have higher rates of staff vacancies and provisionally-licensed staff.

Another possible priority for the funding, Atkinds said, would be adding more staff to English Learner programs, considering the steady increase HCPS has seen during recent years in its English Learner population.

For Nelson, the extra funding provides the opportunity for HCPS to bridge equity gaps and apply targeted efforts toward schools that need more resources and supports.

“I’ve always felt that way – find the places where we can do better and apply pressure there,” he said. “For Opportunity Schools, if there are ways that we can be more supportive, I say do it. That’s really what this whole extra funding was about, we really want to find areas that we can be supportive.”

While Nelson initially suggested at the joint meeting that the extra funding might be provided to HCPS outside of the annual budget process, Atkins said that the school board plans to ask for the additional funding when it sends the board of supervisors their budget proposal in March.

“I’m hopeful that the board of supervisors will approve our funding request,” Atkins said. “It can really help us achieve some significant, positive transformative results.”

In the current 2024-2025 fiscal year, which began July 1, the board of supervisors approved a $1.67-billion operating budget, with a $881 million budget for HCPS. Cashwell will present the school board with the proposed HCPS budget for 2025-2026 in January, which the school board will then vote to approve and send to the board of supervisors for its approval in March.

As of 2023, the school board also has about $35 million held by the board of supervisors in reserves, although the current amount for 2024 has not been released. Each year, the board of supervisors withholds a portion of funds allocated by the Virginia Department of Education to place in reserves, but Atkins has suggested that the school board tap into the reserve funds to use for capital improvements or other initiatives.

“I do not know how much money currently is in reserves, but I am hopeful that perhaps, especially with the mental health crisis that we are in, that if necessary the board of supervisors would appropriate some of it for us,” she said. “It’s hard because as chair, I don’t know out of any year how much of the state funding is put into reserves by the county…but I can continue to hope that we can get an answer to that question.”

However, with the Quioccasin Middle School rebuild project beginning next year, and costing an estimated $89 million, Vithoulkas said that he and Cashwell will likely have to dedicate much of the reserved money toward that project.

“Regarding reserves for schools – our largest capital expenditure next year will be Quioccasin Middle School,” Vithoulkas said. “Dr. Cashwell and I are reserving as much as we can to account for increased construction pricing, so any discussion of reserves with that cost ahead of us would be premature, at best.”

Nelson said that the board of supervisors will continue to fully fund schools with this upcoming budget.

“Almost 60 cents out of every dollar of taxpayer money goes towards our public schools,” “We’ve always funded schools. All those funding requests [the school board] sends, we fulfill them.” 

The announcement of the county’s new extra funding was the “biggest surprise” to Atkins, she said, but a positive one that she hopes will have significant results for Henrico Schools.

“I’m just ecstatic with all of this new extra money Chairman Nelson shared that he wants to give schools,” Atkins said. “I just think that in our county, we really are moving towards breaking free from some of the old limitations…the opportunity of this new funding that Chairman Nelson expressed, it really can be a transformational type of change.”

Liana Hardy is the Citizen’s Report for America Corps member and education reporter. Her position is dependent upon reader support; make a tax-deductible contribution to the Citizen through RFA here.