The Roanoke City Council will vote Tuesday on another school funding policy, marking the third change to the policy in two years.
The policy outlines the calculation of local funds that Roanoke City Public Schools will receive from the city each year, but, as is stated in the policy document, it is “neither a law nor a contractual agreement. Rather, it is a statement of intent.”
The policy states that the city will fund RCPS annually, starting at a baseline of what the division received the year before. Then, if the city brings in more tax revenue than budgeted, the division would receive 34% of that excess revenue — or, if the city comes up short on revenue for that 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…