The Dinwiddie County School Board is scheduled to adopt its proposed $43.3 million operating budget Tuesday and send it to the county Board of Supervisors.

The spending plan includes raises for employees and new teaching positions.

The main goals with this budget were to provide instruction and support staff for the reconfiguration of secondary schools, increase teacher salaries, and prepare for student population growth, said Lynne Venter, executive director for fiscal operations.

School officials will reconfigure secondary grades this fall. Dinwiddie Middle School will house sixthand seventh-graders. Eighthand ninth-graders will attend the current Dinwiddie High School, which will become a junior high. Students in grades 10 through 12 will attend the new high school, scheduled to be completed in July.

Support staff would receive a 5 percent salary increase, Venter said. Teachers would see on average a 9 percent pay increase. Starting salaries would increase from $35,175 to $39,000.

Teacher salaries have been lagging, said Superintendent Charles Maranzano Jr. "We are pushing ourselves to catch up to be competitive with surrounding localities in terms of teacher salaries."

The budget includes four new teaching positions to accommodate student growth.

Anticipating higher fuel and energy expenses, the spending plan includes a half-million dollars more than the current year.

The overall budget increase from the current year is 11 percent. The local contribution would be $12.3 million, a 5 percent increase from the current year.

The school system gained 35 to 50 more students than had been expected, and the composite index, the ability of the local government to contribute to schools, decreased, resulting in more money from the state for a total of $27 million, Maranzano said.

While the final budget is about $1 million less than he proposed, Maranzano said he is happy.

"I think we've got a budget of needs that moves the county forward," he said. "Hopefully, we'll be where we need to be in the coming year."

Tuesday's meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Pamplin Administration Building on Boydton Plank Road.
Contact Juan Antonio Lizama at (804) 649-6513 or jlizama@timesdispatch.com.