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Look inside the superintendent’s proposed budget for RPS

The RPS budget proposal will now need approval from the School Board before being sent to the Mayor

January 22, 2024 • 
Robin Schwartzkopf
RICtoday_RichmondHighSchoolArts_ConstructionKamras

Construction at Richmond High School for the Arts will continue throughout FY25.

Photo by RICtoday

Table of Contents
🗓 Budget season 101
💸 In store for FY25

RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras presented his budget proposal for fiscal year 2025 to the Richmond City School Board at a meeting on Monday, Jan. 22. Here’s an overview of the timeline and what to expect from FY25.

🗓 Budget season 101

Basically, it goes: Superintendent ➡️ School Board ➡️ Mayor ➡️ City Council ➡️ School Board

Budget season begins in January with the superintendent’s proposal. The school board considers the proposal and, if approved, sends it to the mayor in February.

The RPS budget is then incorporated into the mayor’s city budget proposal and presented to City Council around March. After holding hearings and considering changes, City Council should vote to approve the budget in May.

If the city budget ends up with more or less RPS funding than originally proposed, the superintendent goes back to the board with proposed changes. If there are no changes, the school board adopts the final RPS budget.

A pie chart shows the proposed funding sources for Richmond Public Schools in fiscal year 2025 — 59% from the city, 38% from the state, 2.7% from the prior year fund balance, and .2% from federal revenue.

The majority of RPS funding comes from city revenue.

Graph via RPS documents

💸 In store for FY25

FY25 starts July 1 and goes through June 30, 2025. Superintendent Kamras’ proposal includes an Operating Budget and a Capital Improvement Plan Budget.

The Operating Budget covers day-to-day costs of running RPS and is approximately $516.4 million. The proposal asks for $246.5 million from the city — $25 million more than last year — and most of the rest from the state.

RICtoday_CardinalElementary_RPS

Cardinal is one of the schools participating in the RPS 200 pilot.

Photo by RICtoday

The proposal highlights changes to the budget in five priorities. Here’s how much funding is proposed for each, plus a few included priorities.

  • Academics | $5.9 million | Expanding RPS200 pilot and shifting funding for education services
  • Talent | $18.9 million | Raises for staff
  • Wellness | $3.2 million | New staff including school counselors and support specialists, and supplies
  • Engagement | $215,000 | Attendance incentives and hiring two additional bilingual family liaisons
  • Operations | $8 million | Hiring facilities personnel and adding funding for repair and maintenance contracts

Meanwhile, the Capital Improvement Plan Budget is for major facility investments. The CIP budget totals around $16.2 million for FY25. It includes improving athletics facilities, fire alarms, HVAC systems, and roofs at numerous schools.
Get into the numbers by reading the full proposal or viewing the superintendent’s presentation via BoardDocs.