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The Suffolk School Board passed the Superintendent’s budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 during its March 27 meeting. Approval to use a bus driver applicant Virginia Department of Social Services acknowledgement form was also approved.

The Superintendent presented his proposed budget on Feb. 27, which totals $244,554,074 and includes $82,332,201 of city funding — a $7 million increased request from last year. Superintendent Dr. John B. Gordon III said one of the driving factors of asking for more city funding is to hopefully get 11 new School Resource Officers into elementary schools.

The budget passed, with all Board Members except Dr. DawnMarie Brittingham, Ed. D. voting in favor of it. 

“We’re feeling very good,” Gordon said. “Of course, we always want it to be unanimous, but I’m just happy that our Board … supported the plan and they know that we’re gonna come back and make a budget adjustment, but it’s all going to be dependent upon what the General Assembly says.”

The School Board and City Council will have a joint meeting on April 9 at 5 p.m. in the City Council Chamber to discuss the requested funds. The final budget must be adopted by May 15.

Governor Glenn Youngkin requested his proposed budget go back to the General Assembly, so there is a chance the school divisions could receive more funding from the state. Gordon said he expects that to happen and will use any extra non-designated state funds to increase teacher salaries more than the state-mandated 3% raise. Gordon said the goal is a 5% to 5.5% increase.

Brittingham seemed to reject the budget because she doesn’t want to wait on the possibility of extra state funding to provide a 5% to 5.5% teacher salary raise.

“Looking at what was presented to us in February, where in there can we allocate, right now, where do we have to pull it from?” she said during the meeting. “Where is it in the budget now, before we wait for any additional money that comes from the Governor?”

The Suffolk News-Herald contacted Brittingham for further comment on her decision to vote against the budget, but she did not reply by the deadline. 

Gordon addressed requests from Board Members to take money from the “purchased services” budget category and reallocate it to teacher salaries. Gordon and his financial team have deemed this not a viable option because purchased services include sinkhole repairs, HVAC repair, athletic trainers, Virtual Virginia, language interpreters, pest control, and other non-negotiables. 

Wendy Forsman, chief financial officer, said, “If you pull it from purchased services, you’re going to directly affect children.” 

Vice Chair Sean McGee mentioned that five attendance liaison positions will no longer be available. Those positions were tied to the All-In Grant funds, which expire on June 30. 

McGee asked if those salaries could be absorbed into the budget so the current liaisons could keep their jobs.

“All of our attendance liaisons knew that their funding was tied to the All-In Grant, and that was reminded by the HR department several times throughout the two years as well as a reminder in December, and then we had the individual meetings with those employees,” Gordon said. “As a part of that meeting, it was also made clear that those attendance liaisons were strongly encouraged to apply to any other vacancies that they saw here with SPS because we would like to be able to retain them.”

Gordon added those positions are not included in the budget right now, but he is willing to look into adding them if the state provides extra funds.  

After being tabled from the March 13 meeting, a bus driver VDSS acknowledgement form was passed 5-2. Board Members Valerie Fields and Kimberly Slingluff were the dissenting votes.

As discussed during the Board’s prior meeting, a signed form would say the applicant does not have any child neglect or abuse charges against them and would allow them to start the new hire process while waiting for the official CPS background check to come back. 

This form is already used when hiring new teachers.

“I don’t feel comfortable, personally, myself, with cutting that time frame short and running the risk of putting our kids in a position that could jeopardize them,” Slingluff said.

Director of Human Resources Dr. Jessica Avery said in the three years she’s been in her position, there has never been a case where someone has signed the VDSS form, been hired, and later fired because something came back in the CPS report. 

“I feel like to respond to a need in our district for bus drivers, we are doing more than adequate vetting with the criminal background check, with the statistics [Dr. Avery] provided,” Chair Heather Howell said. “We are mitigating the risk here and we are also seeking to get your kids to school on time because that’s been a pervasive complaint from the community. And we are short on bus drivers, and one of the solutions to the shortage is this.”