1. What is #LetsStartStrong Pulaski County?

This is a request from the community to the Pulaski County School Board and Pulaski County Board of Supervisors to allocate funding to decrease student:teacher ratios in Pulaski County kindergarten classes to 10:1. This would mean that classes would either be capped at 10 students or that larger classes would include a full-time paraprofessional to support the teacher.

2. Do any other school districts do this?

Yes! This standard has been implemented in West Virginia for the past several years. But as far as we know, there are no other districts in the New River Valley or elsewhere nearby that have a similar policy, so this would be a great way to demonstrate that Pulaski County really invests in supporting all of our children.

3. I’ve heard that the school system has paraprofessional positions that went unfilled during this school year. If this money is allocated, how do you know that you can fill these positions?

The unfilled paraprofessional positions are part time positions with no benefits. Low wage jobs without benefits have been difficult for all employers to fill, especially in the past year or so. That is why the school board is requesting funding to convert all para positions to full time with benefits, including these new positions. We believe that with benefits, these positions will be much more attractive to a strong pool of candidates.

4. Didn’t we just fund a new middle school? Why do the schools need more money now?

School-related expenses fall into two categories - capital and operating. In 2017, Pulaski County voters overwhelmingly supported building a much needed new middle school, a significant capital investment. Since then, our County has fallen behind in investing in school operating costs, particularly in comparison to Radford and Montgomery County, to whom we lose teachers because of our low pay scale. Like an investment in a new middle school, investing in our operating expenses is not just an investment in schools, it is an investment in the whole county because it attracts businesses and young families to the area, adding to our tax base and thriving community.

5. How does Pulaski County’s investment in the operating budgets for schools compare to other jurisdictions’?

Last fiscal year (FY2021), Pulaski County invested 54% above the amount states require local jurisdictions to spend on operating budgets for the public schools. In comparison, Radford City spent 187% above the required local effort and Montgomery County spent 102% above required local effort. Pulaski County has consistently been 9th out of 11 counties that are either adjacent to Pulaski County or that are part of the River Ridge District. For a quick look at the full set of data for FY2021 click here. To see the full report from which these statistics are taken, click here.

6. I heard that the report referenced above was flawed in some way and doesn’t represent all of the ways Pulaski County invests in schools. Is that true?

The report referenced above only compares County contributions to schools’ operating budgets. It does not include capital expenses. The figures in the report are compiled by the state Department of Education and there is no reason to believe that they are inaccurate. Since the 2017 #LetsBuildIt campaign and the referendum in which Pulaski County voters overwhelmingly supported investing in a new middle school, Pulaski County has appropriately invested more resources in school capital costs. At the same time, the County has fallen behind in funding school operations. Fully investing in schools means investing in both capital and operating costs.

7. I heard that the school board didn’t prioritize the new kindergarten paraprofessional positions highly in its budget request. Is that true?

The summary of the PCPS budget requests for next fiscal year can be found here. While the school board was careful to point out that these are not a ranked list of priorities when they presented the request at their March 30, 2022 special called meeting, it is reasonable to assume that securing a local match for teacher and staff raises are at the top of the school system’s priorities for the upcoming year for a few reasons. First, the additional funding that we anticipate receiving from the state this year requires that we give our teachers raises. If we do not give the teachers raises, we do not get that $2.7M in additional state funding. Second, our teacher and staff pay scales are significantly lower than those in Radford City and Montgomery County, both of which have increased their local contributions above required local effort over the past few years. If Pulaski County continues to fund the operating budget schools at the current rate or lower, our teacher pay rates will continue to decrease in comparison to these districts and we will have an increasingly difficult time recruiting and retaining qualified staff.

8. Someone told me that Pulaski County Public Schools don't need any more money because they never spend all of their allocated money each year. Is this true?

Chris Stafford is the Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Business Operations for Pulaski County Public Schools. He addressed these questions about carryover/leftover funds in an article here (page 1) and here (page 2). In short, PCPS only has a very small percentage of its budget left over at the end of any fiscal year. Any leftover funds go into school capital costs. By state statute, schools can not spend or contract to spend any funds in excess of their allocated funds in any given year. Having a small amount of carryover funds at the end of a budget year is fiscally responsible when it comes to school funding in Virginia.