At its Feb. 27 special meeting, the School Board approved a $986.7 million balanced operating budget for FY 2026. The proposed budget funds operational costs for the 2025-26 school year while providing the needed resources to meet our many state requirements and guidelines, meet community expectations and retain a high-quality workforce.
The approved budget reflects an increase of $17.2 million over the budget proposal made by Superintendent John Murray in January because, based on estimates approved by the General Assembly, additional funding is now expected from the state. Priorities that were previously on the unfunded list have been added to the approved budget, including:
Student-facing needs
$9.7 million for special education support
$4 million for ELL growth
$100,000 for Communities In Schools expansion
Other needs
$1.2 million for fleet maintenance and fuel
$210,000 for other inflation
$577,000 for technology equipment
$582,000 for mega trailers
Now that the School Board has approved a budget, it will be sent to the Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors. They will go through a process that is similar to the process for schools: County Administrator Joe Casey will present the Board of Supervisors with a proposed budget on March 12. Then, community town hall meetings will be held, and the Board of Supervisors will approve a county budget on April 9. This budget includes funding for schools.
Even when this work is complete, the county budget and schools budget cannot be finalized until the state passes its budget. Once that occurs, amendments to the CCPS budget may be needed based on the final state budget. This should happen before July 1, 2025.
Budget documents and details about the budget process are available online.