LYNCHBURG, Va. – Lynchburg City Schools could be getting a lot more money from the state — over $6 million more, in fact.
And it’s all due to higher enrollment than previously thought.
Over 20 people came to Council to voice their opinions on needing more support and funding for education.
It’s been months of back in forth between both council members and members of the community when it comes to the education budget.
“Someone invested in you along your educational journey — invest in my kids,” one parent said to Council.
And Tuesday, tensions ran high again, with news that there could be more funding coming from the state.
But the question now becomes — what would that extra money be used for?
Well, some money would go to keeping Sandusky and T.C. Miller, then another $2.5 million for 3% raises for staff.
That leaves about $660,000. But Councilmen Marty Misjuns and Jeff Helgeson raised their voices, saying that money should be used for tax cuts.
“We can walk and chew gum. We can have a balanced budget, we can think about our taxpayers while simultaneously having good city services,” Helgeson said.
But, the community showed up in full force to combat that idea.
Parents, teachers, and more went in front of Council.
Colleen Larkin, a representative of Save Sandusky said if they don’t invest in students now, they’ll still fork over the money in other ways down the road.
“Children who don’t have literacy rates where they should by fourth grade, 75% of them end up incarcerated, or on welfare. We will end up paying the money. The question is will we pay it now in education, or later in public safety,” Larkin said.
At the end of the meeting, Council adopted the almost $111 million budget, with hopes they would receive the extra state funding, but that isn’t a guarantee.
Councilman Helgeson and Misjuns voted against.
Helgeson said, “Sadly they voted against our motion which gave more to the frontline educators and less to the bureaucratic administration. With the increase in state funding, we could give more to frontline educators and look out for our taxpayers at the same time.”
Council said they’ll meet again after any additional state funding is finalized. And, at that point, they’ll meet with school leaders to decide on next steps.
