City Council Denies Request for Additional School Funds

By DAVID QUESENBERRY

Patriot Publishing 

The Radford City Council declined a request from the Radford City Public Schools for an additional $205,209 for additional matching funds for the school budget.

Council instead by a unanimous vote, moved to continue to seek ways to provide the funds with City and School System staff working together to determine the best source of the funds without adding any new additional City money to the school budget.

Radford City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Adam Joyce reviewed the background of the request noting that the schools did not receive a state budget until June 26^th. In addition, the calculation tool that local schools use to determine their funding was delayed into July.

The budget did provide further K-12 funding, but this funding also required an additional match in local funds from the City of $205,209 in return for a state contribution of $1.4 million. The state funds were allocated across special education, support for at-risk students, infrastructure improvements and compensation packages. Joyce urged the Council to provide the additional matching funds.

In using the school’s capital reserve fund for the match, Joyce said that “relying on it for purposes that run counter to its function is not best practice and clearly not sustainable. That reserve fund cannot serve as a long-term strategy. Continually drawing from this fund in ways which undermine its purpose, amount to a form of internal cannibalization and that approach is not viable.”

He asked that Council consider and plan for the probability that starting next year that the anticipated local contribution would increase approximately $120,000. That figure had been determined by the school system as a new baseline for the local match and local required effort.

Mayor David Horton asked why the difference between the $205,000 and the $120,000. Joyce responded the difference could be due to enrollment fluctuations and the manner in which the state decides to use the calculation tool. Horton then asked how the funding for these programs could be managed if the state reduced its match. Joyce responded that the school staff and Board member would have to go to work to find the money. It also could result in some programs being discontinued. Horton said that he hoped that the state would continue adequate funding for education, but when a local match was applied to a community working to stabilize its financial position it added a burden.

Horton then asked Joyce if the Board had been apprised of discussions at the last meeting regarding use of the capital reserve fund. Joyce responded that it had. To Horton’s question if it was a workable solution for the Board, Joyce responded, “We will go to work and find a way to keep Radford City Schools at the level they expect to be.”

After the presentation Horton asked Council for their thoughts. Councilman Guy Wohlford said he loved Radford and the education he received. He told Joyce, “As you have your responsibilities to the School Board, we have our responsibilities to the City and people of Radford. With what’s going on right now, I just don’t see a way to support this.” Vice-Mayor Seth Gillespie said “I prefer that we be able to find a way to use this from the capital reserves as an exception not the expectation. You don’t land on the fiscally distressed order of the Governor unless your locality is really trying to get their financial house in order. You can’t have a healthy school system if you don’t have a healthy city. We’re working hard to get that. I hope we’re in a very different place when we have this conversation next year,” Councilwoman Jessi Foster said

“The money you hold is taxpayer money for the school’s needs. I am also of the mindset that at least this year, I would like to see if it’s possible to come out of reserves.” Councilwoman Kelli Artrip, speaking to the use of reserves said, “We don’t want this to become a precedent at all. This is something that we have to do right now and that’s the only option we have.” Artrip thanked Dr. Joyce for the excellent job that he is doing for the school system.

Mayor Horton asked Joyce if the schools were in a place to approve use of the capital funds and the $70,000 carryover to get the schools where they needed to be. Joyce responded, “With great hesitation, I would say yes.”

After a brief discussion, Council approved a motion to continue to seek ways to provide the funds with City and School System staff jointly working together to determine the best source of the funds under the condition that there would be no additional City money added to the school budget.

After the vote, Dr. Joyce had a short discussion with Council concerning the upcoming sales tax referendum and its potential impact on the capital needs for the school system.

In other action, Council approved Ordinance 1832 which accepted dedicated public utility easements from Tall Oaks, Venture 1A for property at the intersection of Rock Road East and Tyler Avenue, next to Food City.

Council approved an agreement for professional services for the City to participate as a Class 2 locality in the current class action lawsuit concerning PFA chemicals in municipal water supplies. Mayor Horton explained that currently, the City does not have a problem with these chemicals, but it has been identified as a potential Class 2 community in the national PFA settlement. By becoming a party to the suit, the City’s rights would be protected to receive compensation and recovery from the 3M and DuPont settlements if these chemicals did show up in the City’s water in the future. Horton said the City needed the ability to participate in the settlement so that money would be available to address the problem should it occur.

Council next considered Ordinance 1834 for a tariff for standby power service for the current fiscal year. Tim Logwood, Director of Electric Utilities, told Council that the tariff or Standby Service Rate Structure was developed and was required to manage the power supply for the operation of co-gen facility of Radford University.

In his background report, Logwood said the University had anticipated bringing its co-gen facility on line by June 1, 2026. In the meantime the City authorized a new power supply purchase agreement with CMS, effective June 1, 2026 which did not cover the power load of the university. The thought was that the university’s facility would be on-line at that time.

However, operation of the co-gen facility has been delayed, placing the City at risk to go out on the open power market and purchase power at market rates for the university’s load. The Standby Services Schedule or tariff, has pass-through provisions for the market purchase of power to serve the university’s power load. The City has discretion when the university would be placed on this schedule. This would reduce risk to the City by having any power purchased for Radford University treated as a pass through cost. Logwood recommended that the university be placed on this schedule as soon as possible to reduce any risk the City might have on the open market to supply the university’s needs. Following discussion, Council unanimously approved the measure.

The next scheduled meeting of the Radford City Council will be at 7:00 pm, Monday, August 10, 2026 in the Council Chambers of the Radford City Hall at 10 Robertson Street.