Raises for teachers, bus drivers and support staff are among the top priorities for next year’s budget, Suffolk Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Deran Whitney told the School Board during a Thursday work session.

Executive Director of Finance Wendy Forsman provided the Suffolk School Board with a preliminary overview of the upcoming budget process as Whitney will introduce his proposed fiscal year 2019-2020 budget Feb. 14.

For the current fiscal year, Suffolk Public Schools’ total budget is $168.1 million, which includes $86.4 million from the state and another $59.8 million from the city. The school division’s budget has three funds — the operating fund ($148.3 million), grants fund ($11.4 million) and the food services fund ($8.5 million), the latter of which is self-supporting.

Gov. Ralph Northam’s two-year budget provided a 5-percent raise for teachers, but by state law required matching money from local school divisions. Because Suffolk Public Schools included a 4-percent raise for teachers in its current budget, it is required to add an additional 1-percent raise to get to the 5-percent threshold, Forsman said. Bus drivers and other support staff must receive step raises along with a half-percent cost-of-living adjustment, she said.

Though school divisions are not required to accept state money for pay increases, if they do accept it, they must provide money to match.

The 1-percent for teachers would cost the school division $750,000, while the increase for support staff would be $967,000, Forsman said.

“We recognize that it would be 1 percent for teachers to meet that minimum,” Whitney said. “But obviously, the recommendation will be more than what the minimum requirement will be to meet the 5 percent over the two-year period. That’s not just for teachers, but that would also be for our support staff.”

Forsman said the school division must also pay for an additional seven school counselors, as mandated by the state budget.

Whitney’s other budget priorities include:

• paying for a secondary out-of-school suspension center to be located at two of the division’s schools.
• restorative practices training, which focuses on improving relationships between students and teachers.
• adding money for middle and high school instrument repairs and replacement, putting in place a schedule to do this.
• paying for a backup system for the school division’s servers in the event of a disaster.
• the Excel instructional program
• Making the second of seven yearly payments of $224,600 to Isle of Wight County for the College and Career Academy at Pruden property.
• Continuing to support field trips for students.

Whitney said he did not have a price tag for these programs, but would have it ready by his budget presentation.

Several school board members expressed a desire to increase pay for support staff, substitute teachers and teacher assistants in special education classrooms, offer a higher incentive for teachers to receive National Board certification and provide a stipend for club advisors.

“Are we meeting the cost of living of our support staff?” asked board member Tyron Riddick. “We don’t want to be a training ground for other localities.”

Riddick said the maintenance staff should receive more resources, and more money should be put toward STEM and vocational education.

Board Chairwoman Phyllis Byrum and Vice Chairwoman Dr. Judith Brooks-Buck said they are concerned about class sizes, and Byrum wants to see more children in Early Start programs.

Board member Sherri Story said she was concerned about elementary school playgrounds not being compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Whitney said he would put together a schedule to make these playgrounds ADA compliant.

“What we’ll do from here is … we’ll have some discussion, we’ll look at some of the costs and then bring back a proposed budget,” Whitney said. “Obviously, that will be the time for you to make changes if you don’t agree with it once we’ve cost things out. And then from there we’ll look forward to hopefully being able to develop a budget to pass onto City Council.”