ROANOKE, Va. – Keeping students safe in school is a top priority for all school districts.
Tuesday night, the Roanoke City School Board voted to prioritize safety even more with additional funding.
The board approved the allocation of an additional $600,000 towards school safety initiatives.
“We are so grateful to our school board’s commitment to safety. And they are putting funds where the priority is,” said Superintendent Verletta White.
The additional funding was approved as part of next year’s budget.
A budget with a surplus of funds because of an increase in state funding.
“All in our budget is about $133 million from the state, that includes some grant funds as well. A significant increase,” said Chief Financial Officer, Kathleen Jackson.
The year before, the budget was nearly $15 million dollars less.
Other new things in this year’s budget, a raise for teachers and staff, which was approved back in February.
Also, more positions.
“We have a lot of new positions, that was a focus of the superintendent. We are excited to be including that specifically by reducing class sizes in the core content areas,” said Jackson.
It is still undecided as to what the additional school safety funding will be spent on.
The board is set to vote on new safety measures at their next meeting, July 12.
Before then, they’re asking for your input.
“Parents and community members, staff members still have time to weigh in . We are accepting that input all the way until July 5h. We are encouraging everyone to go to our website, find the survey and weigh in on those recommendations,” said White.