Prince George County school board adopts FY27 budget, pauses employer HSA contribution to limit health‑care spike

Prince George County School Board Chair Ms. Andrews and division officials approved the superintendent’s proposed FY27 budget on March 25, adopting a plan built on the more conservative state Senate funding projection and preserving all current staff positions.

Ms. Smith presented the budget to the board and said the division had worked to avoid layoffs: “While this is not an ideal budget, we worked really hard to make sure that we were able to preserve all of the positions that we have,” she said. The plan keeps a 2% across‑the‑board salary increase rather than the larger raise earlier considered.

To reduce the projected health‑care cost increase, the division proposed pausing the employer contribution to employee HSAs. Ms. Smith told the board that pausing that contribution reduced the projected health‑care increase from 23.4% to 13.8% and represented roughly $400,000 in budget impact. Board members discussed the fairness of the pause and emphasized it is intended as temporary if additional state funding becomes available.

The approved operating fund totals roughly $93.5 million (about $103 million across all funds). Ms. Smith said salaries and benefits account for just over $80 million and operating costs about $11 million; capital outlay is about $2.4 million. The presentation included cuts and adjustments used to balance the budget, including removing several proposed new positions and trimming certain nonpersonnel lines.

Board members pressed staff on an external contracting model used to recruit and place overseas teachers (the EPI arrangement), which carries an administrative fee of about $15,350 per teacher. Division staff and presenters said parts of that fee cover immigration support, licensing assistance and housing help and that a federal FICA exemption applies to those teachers in the first year; the board requested more detailed cost breakdowns and comparisons to domestic hiring costs.

Board member (S6) moved to approve the budget as presented with the understanding the division would return to the board to outline options to restore programs should additional state funds arrive after the April 22 reconvening of the General Assembly. The motion passed on a roll call vote.

Next steps: staff will prepare prioritized options for restoring items if the state budget provides more funding; the board will revisit the budget after state action.