The Pulaski County School Board met on Wednesday, May 17, 2023, to approve an amended budget that provides a 5% pay raise for all employees. The increase was made possible through a combination of $555,000 additional local funds provided by the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors, $279,612 of additional state funding, $504,283 in personnel cuts made by Pulaski County Public Schools, and covering the $446,690 cost of Chromebook replacements from capital projects funding instead of general operating funds.
School Board Chair, Ms. Beckie Cox, stated “We are very thankful that the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors has made an additional $555,000 available for the 2023-2024 school year. It allows us to offer our employees a well-deserved raise and should keep us competitive with neighboring school divisions. We greatly appreciate that they have made increasing school funding a budget priority this year.”
The $504,283 in personnel cuts being made by Pulaski County Public Schools in order to help fund the 5% raise are being accomplished through attrition and not a formal reduction in force process. Pulaski County Superintendent, Dr. Kevin Siers stated “We can thankfully come up with the additional needed funds by not filling some of the positions that are vacant for next year and by reducing the number of teachers paid for teaching sections during their planning period at Pulaski County High School. We are very grateful for the additional state and local funding to make this raise possible but also hope folks realize that the School Board has had to make some incredibly tough cuts from our secondary programs in order to make it all work.”
Positions being eliminated include one middle school assistant principal, one middle school math teacher, one middle school science teacher, one middle school social studies teacher, one middle school English teacher, one high school science teacher, one high school math teacher, and one rotating nurse. PCHS has traditionally been able to increase course offerings by providing additional pay to teachers willing to teach during their planning block. While this will still be the case, these offerings will need to be reduced by approximately 20-30% during the 2023-2024 school year. The results of these cuts will be larger class sizes and fewer elective offerings including those in PCHS Career & Technical Education programs.
PCPS Director of Finance, Morgan Sklar, informed the School Board that it might be possible to reinstate some of the cut positions after the Virginia General Assembly reconvenes this summer to finish their work on FY24 budget.
Pulaski County Public Schools will begin issuing teaching contracts that reflect the 5% raise within the next week.