Chesterfield School Board weighs higher employee pay, infrastructure improvements in proposed budget

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Chesterfield County School Board considered approving an increase in spending in its proposed fiscal year 2027 budget while also approving a capital improvement plan between fiscal years 2027 and 2031 on Tuesday night.

Public comment periods were on the agenda for both items at Tuesday's school board meeting, though few attended.

Last month, Superintendent John Murray proposed a $1.03 billion operating budget, a $47.9 million increase over fiscal year 2026. Those millions of dollars would funnel into higher pay for employees, a bus replacement program and a major maintenance program.

If approved, the changes would go into effect starting July 1 after the county's board of supervisors signs off on the funding.

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Employees' pay would increase by 5% or $35.4 million, according to the proposed budget. Employee minimum wage would rise from $14.70 per hour to $15.28 per hour. Starting teacher salary would increase from $55,047 to $57,277.

Forty-five new buses may be purchased as well.

Chesterfield parents and L.C. Bird High School Physical Education Department Chair Crystal Barker spoke to the school board Tuesday during the capital improvement plan comment period. Before her talk, no one showed for the comment period on the upcoming fiscal year budget.

Barker said a renovation at the L.C. Bird gym is more than due, after she said it was promised decades prior. She hoped that among the improvements would be growing the gym's capacity to 2,000 from 1,150.

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"I look at the capital improvement plan. We still are not officially on 2031. We are under additional projects for the future at the bottom of the list. We've waited long enough," Barker said. "I'm probably going to be out of here before you do it, but there's no middle schoolers that are even going to get in it right now."

According to the school board's Chair Lisa Hudgins, a vote to approve the budget and capital improvement plan is slated for Tuesday, Feb. 24.

Read the entire budget proposal here. Read the entire capital improvement plan proposal here.