Richmond Schools approves revised 2026 budget, including millions in cuts

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- The Richmond School Board approved its budget for the upcoming fiscal year on Tuesday, which featured several revisions to accommodate an about $20 million budget shortfall -- including the elimination of over 20 vacant teacher positions.

The city of Richmond allocated $248.9 million to Richmond Public Schools (RPS) for the 2025-26 fiscal year -- which is $9.6 million more than it received during the 2024-25 fiscal year, but about $20 million less than RPS requested.

The school board made several changes to the budget to account for this shortfall, ultimately reducing its proposed spending by about $13.8 million -- "making RPS leaner than ever before," per school board documents.

This revised version of the budget was adopted by the board during a regular meeting on Tuesday, June 3.

The budget includes $16.5 million dedicated to fulfilling RPS' collective bargaining commitments, such as its promise to give all teachers a 3% raise. The full list of these commitments is as follows:

• 3% raise for all teachers, instructional specialists and nurses
• 11% raise for family liaisons
• 11% raise for support staff
• 6% raise for transportation personnel
• 5% raise for all other central office and ASL staff
• 3% raise for principals, assistant principals and directors
• 2.5% raise for Care and Safety supervisors and EMT coordinators
• 2% raise for Care and Safety associates
• 1% raise for facilities personnel and custodians
• Various raises for office associates, depending on classification
• 1.17% step increase for all

Other notable budget items include $5.5 million to hire 55 multilingual learner teachers, $445,900 to create a new student information system and just under $200,000 to hire an HVAC foreman and an electrical foreman.

Regarding the cuts, over $3 million in potential savings was created by eliminating "long-open vacancies." The exact positions being impacted were not previously shared. However, on Tuesday, the school board outlined the cut positions.

MORE: Richmond School Board weighs proposed budget cuts

A total of 24 vacant teacher positions are to be eliminated, as well as 3 instructional assistant positions, creating an expected $2.4 million in savings. Several other vacant roles were also eliminated, but RPS clarified that the responsibilities of these roles were all absorbed by other roles or are no longer necessary.

The school board explained that these reductions were made after reviewing a variety of different materials, including standards of the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), as well as its own "internal business rules" -- which it described as "generally more generous" than VDOE's standards.

RPS created another $4 million in potential savings -- spread across two different budget items -- by reducing the costs associated with things like supplies, textbooks, software and more.

Additionally, about $125,000 in vacancy-related savings will be generated by eliminating a junior position vacancy in the school board's audit department. Several school board members previously voiced their concerns about potentially weakening that department.

“It is really important that that department is strong,” said board member Stephanie Rizzi during a May 6 meeting. “I remember the process that we had to go [through] to create those positions — and to, without discussion, decide to eliminate that position does not sit well with me.”

On Tuesday, the school board was able to elaborate on that role's responsibilities. According to school board documents, the junior auditor position has been vacant for over a year and its primary purpose was to audit the student activity fund. This responsibility has been outsourced to existing auditors.

Tuesday's presentation is available in full here. You can also view the full budget document here.