The Commonwealth of Virginia allows for localities to decide whether members of School Boards should be elected by the public or appointed by the governing body.
Either way, Virginia does not grant any power to those bodies to generate their own tax revenue. School Boards vote on an annual budget request each year, but the locality’s legislature has the final say.
The consent agenda of City Council’s meeting on September 8 included the second of two readings of a $2 million allocation that Council had set aside for the School Board when a final vote on the city’s FY2027 budget was taken on April 9.
At that time, the House of Delegates and Senate had not agreed on a budget and would not until the end of June. The idea was that the money would be allocated to Charlottesville City Schools when a final number from the state was known.
Council met with the School Board on August 12, 2026 for a work session on how to use the proceeds from a potential increase in the sales tax should voters approve a referendum this November 3.
But much of the discussion that night covered how the $2 million general fund money was placed in a contingency fund for school operations with further restrictions.
“The city appropriated $2 million of the school board’s request into a school’s operating contingency subject to future approval by City Council,” said Renee Hoover, chief financial officer for Charlottesville City Schools. “In addition, City Council included a provision that additional state revenue received by the school division would be shared equally, 50 percent allocated to the city and 50 percent allocated to Charlottesville City Schools.”
Many members of the School Board expressed concern about how they were treated. Chair Lisa Torres said she and others had gone back to listen to the recording to understand why the money was locked away.
“Right now I’m speaking for myself, I found this process that occurred in this change to the ordinance ultimately just really insulting to us, because I feel like it potentially reflects that there’s this sense that we are less than fiscally responsible, that there’s some mistrust of what we’re going to do,” Torres said.
Torres said no one notified the School Board or school officials and noted the amount schools received from the state was $300,000 more than anticipated and she said it was also insulting that schools are being asked to share that with local government.
Krisy Hammill, Charlottesville’s chief budget officer, said the ordinance was written the way it was because on April 9 no one knew where the state budget would end up.
“It was just to wait until the state budget was finalized so that we had an accurate account of what the state funding would be, so the local match to that would be appropriate,” Hammill said.
The first of two readings to allocate the funds was on August 17.
City Manager Sam Sanders reminded both Council and the School Board that this was a tight budget year. He had initially recommended a two cent increase on the real property tax rate in 2026 but Council decided to only go with one cent. He said there was no sense from the city that schools would mismanage the money.
“The concern was that the budget was unclear as to how it was gonna land, and the question was, would the state give you up to that amount, less than that amount, or whatever amount?” Sanders said. “And in order for this Council to then have their budget approved, they need to make a decision on a number.”
When asked by Torres if a similar contingency would be used next year, Sanders said it will depend on how the budget process works out. It is unusual for the two chambers of the General Assembly to be in disagreement for so long.
School Board Member Chris Meyer said local government operations have the opportunity to receive additional funds from surpluses that derive from real property tax collections being over budget each year. Likewise, the school system felt it should be entitled to all of the money it received from the state and not have to give any back over to the local government.
“When you all have a budget surplus though, we don’t have an opportunity to come back also and like try to go after those funds necessarily and make an argument for some of those funds in a similar way,” Meyer said. “In my mind, the logic that kind of went with that.”
City Councilor Michael Payne apologized if there was any sense that the local government was judging the school system. He said Council has raised multiple taxes in recent years to cover increased costs. Payne suggested another round of looking at how Charlottesville funds its schools. A previous project called the Blue Ribbon Commission on Sustainable Schools Funding wrapped up in 2014 and can be found on cvillepedia.
“It’s clear that there is not agreement on what that looks like, or what that should look like,” Payne said. “And so obviously, you are coming to us every year with requests that are substantially above what that agreement would require. I don’t fault you for doing that, because you have very legitimate needs. But it creates a lot of challenges for how we figure out our budget.”
Payne said the city has funded many large capital projects in recent years including the redevelopment of Charlottesville Middle School to add sixth grade students and the full acquisition of the Charlottesville Area Technical Education Center from Albemarle County.
Another structural issue going forward is that Charlottesville City Schools’ collective bargaining units will likely require annual spending increases each year going forward, just as Charlottesville’s four collective bargaining units will likely require the same.
“I think our challenge is always just how can we align on the same page of acknowledging City Council has budget constraints,” Payne said. “We cannot fund everything. We are embarking on major capital projects. major collective bargaining contracts.
Mayor Juandiego Wade was one of the first people to be elected to the Charlottesville School Board and spent 16 years in that position. He said it is time to reexamine the funding formula and to ask the Commonwealth of Virginia for more funding.
“The state is not doing what it’s supposed to do, and I think we need to continue to push our representative to, to step up to the plate and do what they have to do. And as far as union, the collective bargaining, that’s something that I think that City Council is definitely supportive of, both the school board side and local government,” Wade said. “It’s a commitment that we’ve made.”
Charlottesville School Superintendent Royal Gurley already has a number in mind for how much additional money he will request based on collective bargaining.
“When we build our budget for the upcoming school year, you know that we already will be asking for $3 million,” Gurley said. “I mean, we don’t even— we can tell you that right off the top. I mean, and that leaves no room for anything else. And that $3 million is specifically related to the collective bargaining contracts.
The joint meeting then moved onto a discussion of the one cent sales tax referendum. That conversation in a future edition of the newsletter. The next joint meeting between the School Board and the City Council will be held in December as part of the budget development process.
Before you go: The goal of Town Crier Productions is to increase awareness about what is happening at the local, regional, state, and federal government levels. Please share the work with others if you want people to know things. Paid subscribers cover the cost of conducting research for this article which was originally published in the September 9, 2026 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. You can either subscribe through Substack or make a charitable contribution.
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