Actions

Richmond School Board votes to request $8.3 million in unassigned funds

Posted at 11:50 PM, Apr 03, 2017
and last updated 2017-04-04 00:46:08-04

RICHMOND, Va. -- The Richmond School Board voted to ask City Council for all of the $8.3 million in unassigned funds at Monday night’s board meeting.

It was a lengthy discussion among board members with questions and suggestions on how to spend that money.

Chief Financial Officer David Myers told CBS 6 this money is all under the control of the City, and the board had until April 11 to make a request to amend the current City budget.

Myers said this accumulation is not out of the ordinary for school systems.

“This is something that happens in school divisions all over the Commonwealth,” said Myers. “It happens with school divisions everywhere, specifically in the Commonwealth because of the rules that we have and the laws.”

Along with requesting those funds from the City, the board also voted to create a policy on how to use those unassigned funds.

As right now there is not an existing policy in place regarding fund balance.

All of the board members except Jonathan Young voted to ask for all of the $8.3 million, as he said it’s another request for the taxpayers.

Right now, the board doesn’t know how they will specifically spend the money, or what will be put in the reserve, but $1 million of that will go toward capitol funds.

“Moving forward with discussions, we’ll be talking about whether we’ll be using those for operational funds and whether we will want to continue to set some aside for emergencies like roof collapses,” said School Board member Scott Barlow.

CBS6-News-at-4pm-and-Jennifer-Hudson-480x360.jpg

Entertainment

Watch 'The Jennifer Hudson Show' weekdays at 3 p.m. on CBS 6!

📱 Download CBS 6 News App
The app features breaking news alerts, live video, weather radar, traffic incidents, closings and delays and more.