Warren County School Board considers WCPS budget, fiber lease, absenteeism policy

While the Warren County School Board had no action items on its Wednesday, April 19 agenda, board members received information on the fiscal year (FY) 2024 operating fund budget, a possible new high-speed internet fiber lease, and the attendance policy for Warren County Public Schools (WCPS).

School Board Chair Kristen Pence, Vice Chair Ralph Rinaldi, and board members Andrea Lo, Antoinette Funk, and Melanie Salins were present for the work session, which they also referred to as a retreat.

For the first agenda item, WCPS Technology Director Tim Grant discussed the potential of WCPS leasing fiber to provide internet access.

“Our fiber that provides internet to all the schools is starting to get some age on it,” Grant told the board members, noting that WCPS currently owns eight miles of network fiber. “The drawback in owning a fiber network is maintenance.

“I’m just trying to think ahead because we had a few squirrel chews this past year, and the insurance no longer pays for these squirrel damages, so I’m trying to think of something that’s going to be able to give us a little more redundancy and provide more immediate fixes instead of having to wait days and days for companies to come out and fix the fiber,” explained Grant.

Recently, he said a squirrel chewed through the fiber at Warren County Middle School, shutting down the internet for almost two weeks. And it took the company that WCPS has a maintenance contract with several days to come out and fix the problem, which cost $46,000, he said. WCPS had a line item of $40,000 toward paying for the fix but had to move over other monies from another item to totally cover the cost.

“We don’t want to get stuck in that situation” again, said Grant, adding that WCPS historically receives one to two damages to fiber each year from animals. He’s also concerned about possible costs associated with potential traffic accidents and pole maintenance.

The possibility of leasing fiber, he added, would be more cost-effective, Grant said, because the federal e-rate program would pay 70 percent of the school division’s lease fee. Shentel Glo Fiber has already won the WCPS e-rate bidding competition to lease the fiber. The lease contract with Shentel is contingent upon whether WCPS receives the federal e-rate grant, which could be awarded as early as July.

“I have already applied for the grant, but we’re just waiting to see whether we get the funding for it,” Grant said.

After e-rate discounts and rebates, WCPS would pay $16,200 a year to lease fiber from Shentel, which in its contract stipulates a four-hour response time to any damages, maintaining the school division’s functionality and security and providing a consistent bill.

Grant told the School Board members that he will present the fiber lease item to them again as an action item once the federal government makes a decision on the WCPS e-rate grant award application.

Upcoming budget
WCPS Superintendent Christopher Ballenger led Wednesday’s FY2024 budget discussion, telling School Board members that the WCPS proposed FY2024 budget totals $72,524,746, an increase of $2.63 million over the school division’s approved FY2023 budget of $69,892,943.

Warren County Public Schools Superintendent Christopher Ballenger (above) discussed the school division’s proposed FY2024 budget during the School Board’s Wednesday, April 19 work session.

The budget total includes $61,536,521, which is needed to cover FY2024 salaries and benefits. It also includes $10,988,225 to cover line item non-labor costs, which are for services and/or items needed at each school and at different WCPS offices. Line items include office or educational supplies, replacement furniture, repairs and maintenance, dues and memberships, lease/rental of equipment, advertising, textbooks, and technology software, among others.

To cover these costs, the $72,524,746 total operating fund budget for FY2024 will come from several revenue sources. The biggest chunk — $38,093,115 — will come from the State of Virginia, an increase of more than $1.2 million over WCPS’ state-approved funding of $36,881,771 for FY2023. The next-biggest chunk is $28,650,338 from Warren County, a more than $2.14 million increase over the $26,504,541 the County approved for FY2023, according to Ballenger’s draft documents.

Additionally, $4,980,387 will come from federal revenues — a decrease of $974,490 over approved FY2023 federal funds that totaled $5,954,877 — and from roughly $500,000 of miscellaneous revenue sources, such as an energy bond rebate and county vehicle maintenance funds, the documents show.

“These are the numbers I will present to you at the May 3 School Board meeting for your consideration,” Ballenger said during the retreat.

Attendance policy
Ballenger also provided the School Board with a draft attendance policy, which he said the Attendance Committee has been working on all year.

The draft policy addresses student attendance requirements and school attendance procedures. For instance, the superintendent pointed out that the draft policy recognizes that when a student misses a day of school, they miss the opportunity to learn on that given day.

However, “regardless of the reason a student is absent, the absence will count toward the student’s chronic absenteeism rate for the school year and can impact their eligibility to participate in extracurricular activities,” the draft policy states.

Another example regarding the documentation of student absences in the draft policy says that when a pupil has been absent for 15 days or more in a row, the student will be dropped from the roll and marked “withdrawn” from school.

Ballenger said presenting the board with the draft policy would not be counted as an official reading of the policy. He said it is just an opportunity for them to review, adjust and revamp the policy if needed before it is formally presented again for board action.

Watch the exclusive Royal Examiner video of the School Board retreat in its entirety here.