Intro to the draft FY26 Richmond Public Schools Budget
Richmond Public Schools (RPS) has begun creating its budget for the next fiscal year, FY 26. Below is a quick introduction to the proposed budget. Next week I’ll post an update with my own analysis and opinions on the budget, but for now this is meant to be a high-level summary.
The draft FY 26 budget is laid out in three key documents that you can find here.
FY 26 Superintendent's Proposed Budget
FY 26 Superintendent’s Updated Proposed Budget
FY 26 Budget Memo for 2-3-25 work session
The RPS budget for the current fiscal year (FY 25) is roughly $414 million. Of this, about $239 million comes from the City of Richmond. The City of Richmond provides roughly 60% of the revenue for the schools operating budget. Just under 40% comes from the Commonwealth of VA.
The RPS budget for the next fiscal year (FY26) will be reviewed, revised and then finally voted on by the Richmond City School Board before being submitted to City Council for appropriation. You can read my older blog post here that lays out the entire RPS budget process.
This initial budget proposal is asking for roughly $43 million more than the current budget (FY25). What priorities are in the new proposed budget? The new budget is trying to achieve goals set out in our RPS strategic plan “Dreams4RPS.”
Highlights include:
Priority 1: Academics ($12,455,136) – Investments in literacy, multilingual learners, extended time, and graduation. Example: $5.5 million for 55 multilingual learner teachers to meet enhanced VDOE ratios.
Priority 2: Talent ($22,759,362) – Investments in teacher and staff pay to meet all of our collective bargaining commitments, and in efforts to reduce our vacancy rate. Example: $16,498,089 in compensation increases for staff.
Priority 3: Wellness ($7,136,520) – Investments in mental health and safety. Example: $2,299,500 to maintain mental health partners, including RBHA, Child Savers & CIS.
Priority 4: Engagement ($1,562,543) – Investments in attendance and communications. Example: $743,503 to maintain 8 family liaisons currently on expiring grant funding.
Priority 5: Operations ($7,371,200) – Investments in building maintenance, technology, and transportation. Example: $1,600,000 for contracted custodial services to provide additional support at our secondary schools.
Budget Cuts: There are roughly $7.9 million worth of cuts in the draft FY 26 budget. The largest single item among the cuts is a reduction of about $4 million only covering half the healthcare cost increase and passing along the other half of the health care cost increase to people on the RPS employee health plans. In previous years RPS had been covering 100% of the health care cost increase.
The School Board has a budget work session scheduled for Weds February 19th at 6:00 PM. 3rd District residents can email me at afaruk[at]rvaschools.net. Other city residents can contact their school board members here to give them feedback on the RPS budget.
Look out for an update from me next week that lays out my analysis, opinions, and high level summary of what choices we have to make on the budget going forward.