By Michael Copley
Powhtatan Today Staff Writer

Gov. Bob Mcdonnell’s recommendation today to unfreeze the state’s local composite index could mean an additional $460,000 reduction to the budget of Powhatan County Schools.

Dr. Margaret S. Meara, Superintendent of Schools in Powhatan, said unfreezing the index, if it happens, will be “very serious” for the county school system. Job cuts have been the primary worry for weeks, she said, and updating formula “would impact even more people.”

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported, “The index is the formula that the Virginia Department of Education uses to determine how much funding to give to each of the state’s 134 school divisions. It’s an ability-to-pay system, based on each locality’s daily average attendance and overall student enrollment, real estate values and retail sales tax.”

“In other words, the higher the index, the more wealthy the locality and therefore, the less state money the school division receives. The newest index is based on data from 2007…The index has been adjusted every two years to account for fluctuations in local economic conditions.”

Jason Moore, District 2 school board member, said the additional decrease in funding- $460,520- would mean a “great deal” more budget work for the school board. 

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Richmond city and Chesterfield County would be hit the hardest if the index is updated.

Richmond would lose another $9 million state revenue and Chesterfield would lose an additional $4 million in state funds.
Hanover County would lose $900,000 in state funding, while Henrico County would lose $450,000.

—Olympia Meola and Holly Prestidge contributed to this report