MANASSAS, Va. — The Prince William County School board said they're going to have some tough decisions to make.
During their school board meeting Wednesday night John Wallingford, the Chief Financial Officer for PWCS told the board members that they'll be short $10,709,693 for the FY 2024 budget, because of the error made by the Virginia Department of Education.
A spokesperson for the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) told WUSA9 that they learned last week that a calculation tool on the department website was providing inflated estimates of state funding to school divisions. VDOE alerted staff of the Senate Finance and House Appropriations Committees on Wednesday and sent this message to school divisions on Friday.
The calculation tool apparently didn't take into account the state's decision to lower the grocery tax, and was telling school budget planners to expect too much money.
According to reporting by the Associated Press, Charles Pyle, a department spokesperson, said in an interview that the mistake was contained in an Excel spreadsheet the department makes available to local divisions. It led to funding calculations that were "overly generous," he said, a difference of $201 million between expectation and reality statewide over two fiscal years.
He noted that the mistake had no impact on actual funding and said divisions are receiving all of the aid authorized under the state budget. Advocates for public schools said the problem raised serious concerns and were pushing for additional funding to match their expectations.
Districts respond
WUSA9 reached out to school districts throughout Northern Virginia to see how it will impact the various budgets.
Alexandria City Public Schools shared the following statement:
We were informed of this apparent error in calculations in state funding to school divisions. Revised state revenue will be known once the General Assembly completes its crossover process. While we understand that this means a reduction in state funding for Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS), we will not feel as great of an impact as other school divisions that have a lower local composite index (LCI). ACPS has a 0.8 LCI, meaning the City of Alexandria funds 80% of our budget.
- Alexandria City Public Schools Chief Financial Officer Dominic Turner
Arlington County Public Schools shared this statement:
The state calculated our projected Basic Aid for next year but neglected to include the Grocery Tax Hold Harmless as an offset to Basic Aid. As a result, the projected Basic Aid was reduced by $1.5M to correct for the error
Loudoun County Public Schools shared this statement:
At this time we can say rough estimates place the revenue shortfall at about $7.4m for FY24. We await the updated VDOE budget calculation templates anticipated on February 9. In addition, the Loudoun County School Board will be holding a FY24 Operating Budget Adoption and Public Hearing this Thursday, February 2, at 5 pm, where this is most likely to be discussed.
Prince William County Public Schools shared this statement:
PWCS expects an estimated negative impact of approximately $11 million to FY 24 budget. Unfortunately, this error by VDOE may inhibit our ability to make critical FY 24 investments, such as teacher staffing, special education teaching assistants, and crucial safety improvements.
During the PWCS board meeting Wednesday night, they shared this photo of a timeline of how they learned of the error.
A board member asked CFO John Wallingford, "So in the next 10 years, based on my math, that's around $108 million that we will lose?
"Correct," said Wallingford.
"So every year we're losing this $11 million," asked the board member.
"Yes, it's a substantial impact to the division over time," said Wallingford.
The VDOE told WUSA9 a corrected tool will go online next week.
Lawmakers could take up this issue later in the legislative session, when they get to work on the state's budget for the next two years.
According to the AP, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin asked House and Senate budget leaders Wednesday to include “the necessary resources” in their spending plans to address an error in a state-provided formula that led local school divisions to expect more state aid than they are set to receive.