Isle of Wight County’s School Board voted unanimously to approve the school division’s proposed $66.3 million budget for the 2019-2020 school year, $28.2 million of which would come from county taxpayer dollars. The budget will now go before the county’s Board of Supervisors for final approval and funding.

As previously reported in the Windsor Weekly, the proposed local contribution amounts to a roughly $1.9 million increase over what the county’s Board of Supervisors had allocated to the school division at the beginning of the current school year.

Since the School Board’s budget work session on March 7, only one minor change has been made to the budget. This involves the planned raises for teachers, which would take effect on July 1 of this year. As of March 7, the salary for 10-month teachers with more than 30 years experience, but no advanced degrees or certificates, had been capped at $70,537 — the same amount offered for the current school year. Now, a step 31 and step 32-plus have been added to the pay scale. As such, those with 32 or more years of teaching experience at the start of the next school year will now earn $71,948. Division staff said this ensures that all returning teachers will receive a raise.

The School Board approved the new pay scale separate from the budget, also unanimously.