The Roanoke City Council will likely vote shortly after New Year’s on a new school funding policy, continuing an effort by the city to rein in the schools’ spending as it grapples with its own shortfalls.
The ongoing changes — this would be the third in two years — have strained the relationship between the division and the city.
According to the most recent draft of the proposed policy, obtained through the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the city would fund Roanoke City Public Schools annually starting at a baseline of what the division received the year before. Then, the schools would either receive 34% of the city’s excess revenue, or, if the city comes up short on revenue for the year, the schools would return 34% of that shortfall. The next year, the division’s new baseline funding would be equal to its final allocation from the previous year…