Coraggio Consulting
Prince William County School Board Work Session, Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Date: Wednesday, March 11, 2026
Place: Prince William County School Board, Virginia
Length: 25m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbT4wOz_ACE
Official School Board page (PWCS): https://www.pwcs.edu/about/school_board/

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-28. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] - Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the Prince William County School Board. We are gonna have a work session this evening on the CIP. And so today we have, first I need to have an approval of the agenda, a motion's in order.

[00:00:18] Vice Chair Jesse. - I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting agenda as recommended. - Do you have a second? - Mr. Chairman. - Ms. Zargarpur. - I second. - Any discussion? All in favor, please signify by raising your hand and any opposed six yet six yes to not president vote tradenik williams motion passed okay moving on to the office um of the chief financial officer before we begin we have a coia statement to be read by school board member justin wilk mr wilk thank you everyone uh stating that pursuant to the virginia state and

[00:00:56] local conflict of interest act i'm required to declare the following regarding adoption of this budget my wonderful wife is employed as a teacher in prince william county public schools and i therefore have a personal interest in this transaction number two i'm a member of a group of three or more persons affected by the transaction and number three i'm able to participate in the adoption of the budget fairly objectively and in the public interest thank you mr chairman thank you mr wilk uh at this time uh we will um i will be turning the meeting over shortly to dr mcdade uh for our budget work session and final markup

[00:01:34] But before I do that, I have some sort of introductory remarks, kind of take us through how we do this. First off, just as we think about the budget this year, and I've mentioned this at prior school board meetings, things that I'm concerned about and that many of us are concerned about is what's happening down in Richmond and sort of the general economic environment.

[00:01:52] There are concerns about recalculating the LCI, the Local Composite Index, which can impact the funding that Prince William County receives from the state. are some ideas and bills out there that could reduce school funding to Prince William County up to 40 million dollars a year it's unclear what the General Assembly is going to decide on but there are things that we are continuing to take into consideration as we plan our next four-year strategic plan in our budget concerns about inflation concerns about unfunded mandates that are being

[00:02:28] circulated in the General Assembly as well and then constantly being observant of what's happening at the board of county supervisors and how their tax policy and tax decisions will impact our school funds and so you know as we move through the budget markup this evening i want to acknowledge a concern that continues to arise in our community which is a level of per pupil investment in prince william county public schools the reality is that our students continue to receive one of the lowest per pupil investments among neighboring divisions even as the expectations placed on our schools continue to grow in comparison to other districts

[00:03:06] prince william county schools and i have a slide up here for for everyone to take a look at in comparison to other districts prince william county schools is funded at about twenty thousand dollars per student that trails fairfax at who's at almost 22 000 alexandria who's over 22 000 Loudon at almost 24,000, and Arlington at a staggering $25,406, and yet we are serving more than 90,000 students with diverse and complex needs.

[00:03:37] Our students deserve the same level of opportunity, support, and access as students anywhere else in the region. This is not about comparison for comparison's sake. It is fundamentally about fairness, competitiveness, our shared responsibility to ensure every Every child has the resources needed to thrive.

[00:03:57] We have made meaningful progress over the years, and I'm grateful for our partnerships that have helped us move forward. But we must be honest. If we want to fully deliver on our commitments to students, staff, and families, continued investments matter.

[00:04:13] This is why our budget matters. It's not simply about numbers on a page. It's about whether we are willing to match our expectations for student success with the resources required to make that success possible when we invest in our schools and we invest in our students then we ensure a thriving future for all of us with those remarks completed I'd like to turn the meeting over to dr. McDade dr. McDade thank you mr. chairman I'm just as a quick review before we begin to review markup for the public on February 4th our team public publicly presented the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget and capital improvement program

[00:04:52] or CIP and the school board then held a public meeting on the proposed budget on February 9th followed by a public hearing on February 18th and then tonight is the school board's work session for the final markup of the FY 27 budget we've worked collaboratively with our budget team departments for several months to develop the fiscal year 27 budget in CIP and in this budget you'll find that we are finalizing um our concluding vision 2025 plan and commitments that were that needed to be fulfilled there to close out vision 2025 and we're also launching the

[00:05:31] foundational support for our new strategic plan elevate 2030 and so we're really excited about so many future focused and innovative programs particularly you'll see in the new budget a significant investment in universal pre-k which is a part of elevate 2030 and so i really want to before we get started just thank the school board for your time for your attention your and your engagement throughout this process and all of the feedback that you've given to us you've reviewed and analyzed the proposed budget and provided critical feedback and suggestions and so you'll see some that the budget doesn't have significant changes but there are suggestions

[00:06:10] by the board that will be reflected in the work session tonight so I just want to thank each of you for being proactive and being involved throughout this process to ensure that there is alignment with our elevate 2030 strategic plan and our financial resources so that we make good on the commitments that we have made to our students to our schools and to our families so at this time I would like to turn the presentation over to our chief financial officer mr. Shaquille Youssef he'll provide an update on the fiscal year 27 budget including all of the markup items that we'll be reviewing tonight mr.

[00:06:46] Youssef good evening dr. Lateef school board members and dr. McDade today's presentation provides an update of the FY 27 proposed revenue outlook and markup changes under consideration after board input I'll start with the county revenue. This is a quick timeline of what has happened and what is going to happen.

[00:07:14] On March 3, the Finance and Budget Committee of Prince William County had a discussion on increasing the computer and peripheral tax for specific non-school uses. Fortunately, That did not come out of that committee as proposed on March 3rd.

[00:07:38] The committee approved the advertisement of the current rate of 90.906 cents for real property taxes and an increased rate of up to $4.50 for the computer and peripheral taxes.

[00:07:57] So this is what they have advertised. This doesn't mean that that's where they will end up. On March 10, 2026, which was yesterday, they had a revenue update, and there was no change from the CXO's proposed budget.

[00:08:16] April 7, 2026 is when we do the budget recap and school board presentation to the BOCS. On the 14th of April, Prince William County will do their own budget markup, and on April 21st, they go for budget adoption.

[00:08:38] That's the update on county revenues at this point in time. Moving on to the state revenue, on February 26th, the House and Senate approved their budgets with additional K-12 resources.

[00:08:54] Preliminary estimates will result in net additional funds for PWCS. Important to note, and specifically with the House bill, the majority of new funds are one-time and will need to be spent on one-time items such as curriculum, tutoring, and construction.

[00:09:15] We are expecting and hoping that the conference report will be available by Thursday, March 12th, because on Saturday they will go into Sindai and they need 48 hours to act upon it. We're hoping that the state will have this out there, the General Assembly, so that we can have a budget in a timely fashion.

[00:09:40] So for this budget, we've held the school estimates, our estimates, the same as the proposed budget, we're not taking any action yet on that. We anticipate that by April 13th there would be final action by the governor.

[00:09:58] If not, if there's vetoes, et cetera, this could go into April 22, 2026, when the General Assembly reconvenes, which means that this will go past the date that the county appropriates.

[00:10:17] The outlook for state budget funding, as Dr. Lateef alluded to, beyond the current biennium is tempered by the upcoming reset of the local composite index. As you know, Prince William County's real property values and overall wealth is increasing.

[00:10:35] And this could potentially increase. This is a very early preliminary estimate, our LCI from a 37% to a 40%, which could almost affect our revenues by $40 million, less revenues from the state.

[00:10:51] This is something that's happening in the future and it's worth noting that there are some pressures that are coming beyond this, beyond what we have. In terms of the summary of the markup, there are no additional revenues assumed at this time from the state and county.

[00:11:12] We did shift about $2.1 million revenue from debt service to operating fund due to the approval of the scenario B decision. In terms of our expenditures, following staff review and analysis, there's a recommendation for 28 FTEs totaling $3.42 million to be included in the markup.

[00:11:37] The other thing I would like to mention is we do recommend an adjustment to the FY2027-31 CIP. This is a technical adjustment. It does not necessarily involve funds or additional funding, but this is to include a pre-K center architectural design to start that work.

[00:11:58] We estimate it's going to be about $4 million, so that we are able to also roll out our universal pre-K by 2030. So this is getting more of a design as to what a pre-K center will look at. It's not site-specific at this moment. It's just getting that since it was not called out in the 2027-31 CIP.

[00:12:22] And then finally, this is what were the additional investments that we put in markup. We're adding 10 bus drivers to ensure that there's operational stability and instructional support. We are adding a theater set coordinator to support the internal permit review.

[00:12:46] We're working on, you've heard from everyone and a lot of our theater folks, that the current process with the county doing it could be onerous on us. We're increasing the support for high school athletic trainers with one additional trainer for each high school and putting us on par with both Loudoun and Fairfax.

[00:13:08] We're increasing our supplements for girls wrestling, girls flag football and boys volleyball. We are adding two community safety officers to increase our CSO presence at our elementary schools.

[00:13:23] adding two on core teachers for the two schools that have students over a thousand Covington Harper and Haymont Elementary School so again our total markup is 28 FTEs at three three million four hundred and seventeen thousand four hundred thirteen and that concludes our markup presentation Mr. Chairman can you go back Shaquille Mr. Chairman I would like to just add a little bit of detail on a couple of the markup items that mr youssef shared for the first one this is the bus

[00:13:59] drivers i just want to note we did get feedback from at least one board member multiple as a matter of fact about the need to support activities after school activities for students and having more activity buses so i did want to add just to find a point here that the 10 bus drivers yes it will support operational efficiency and transportation but it also will go a long way in supporting the need to address some of the concerns that board members had about the after-school activity buses the theater set

[00:14:33] coordinator just wanted to kind of come back to that because mr. Bach and his team did have an opportunity to work with the county office and so the reason we need the theater set coordinator is because if we do self-permitting we need someone that will have oversight of the theater sets internally and so we don't have the capacity to do to take on that new work without having someone specifically assigned to that when those projects come up and then the increased support for the high school athletic trainers this would help bring

[00:15:09] us on par regionally which was something that several board members asked about so those are just a few that I wanted to put a little bit of additional information in and the last one was also something that was flagged by one of our board members and so Covington Harper came up in the Potomac district because it's the only elementary school with over a thousand students and so once we took a look at that we looked across the county to see if there were any other schools that had that level of enrollment and Haymarket in the Brentsville district was the only other school that had 1,000 plus students and so that's

[00:15:47] why only those two schools are listed here to have the extra FTE for Encore because they're the only elementary schools with that large population that makes it challenging to offer the Encore courses. Dr. McDade, just on the quick question on the supplements that allow for wrestling, flag football, boys volleyball, so that's supplements but will we also be including money in the budget for the schools to buy whatever equipment they need to do those courses?

[00:16:14] We have additional funding already allocated for Athletics Centrally, but this add-on was specifically based on the feedback that we received and some conversations that happened at the dais, too. Okay. Anything else from you all?

[00:16:35] Okay, questions? Ms. Tredenik. I'm just curious for the athletic trainers, this is one full-time, not a part-time person. Can they flex that into two part-time?

[00:16:51] Can they? So this would allow two full-time for each high school, and just to put a finer point on what Mr. Yusuf said, it would be in alignment with Fairfax Loudoun and Alexandria City. Is there a possibility that they could use that as a flex position, as in having two part-time people fill that role?

[00:17:12] Because I do know that that was a need that was brought to my attention, that sometimes that full-time position is harder to fill. If that's the case, can they utilize it in a different way would be what I would ask. We didn't discuss that, but I would say that if the money is being assigned for an athletic trainer, it would have to be used for an athletic trainer.

[00:17:36] So if they decided to get two part-time people, I don't necessarily see that being a problem. It's not something we discussed with the athletic director. But so long as the position is used for its intended purpose, I don't see where that's a problem. it's when the position is assigned for an athletic trainer because that's the identified need and then it's being taken and used for something else so it would not be allowed to be used for something other than an athletic trainer but I don't see an issue if they have problems staffing a full-time if they had you know two part-timers to split the position that's not a problem I do

[00:18:12] want to note that Fairfax doesn't currently have the two they will for next year but you know I don't want to make it appear that they have it today Loudon does but they all by next year we'll all have two so this will bring us on par with our peers yeah and I think that I mean in hearing that need from them having those two part-time would would help meet a need where they can't currently meet it I think that I know we know that a lot of positions are hard to fill sometimes so giving them that option to do a part-time role for some of our people that have retired that still have their certification that kind of thing that

[00:18:49] could come back you know only for certain things like games and things like that would be um would be a nice thing so um and then I have one more question about the CSOs um can you talk a little bit currently uh Vern about how many CSOs we currently have at the elementary level and this might be a question I ask again sure uh we have currently 18 this would bring us up to 20 uh with 162 elementary schools that roughly have three assigned elementary schools per CSO

[00:19:16] So that gives us an additional arm presence at our elementary sites. Thank you. Any other questions miss wall. Um, I had a question Thank you for this information Really good. Um, the question I have My first question is regarding the supplements flowing for the wrestling and flag football and volleyball and my question is will this funding then allow for a start-up this coming fall for each of those programs that's the plan

[00:19:52] when we look at I'm getting the nod from the high school team so yes okay great I think we'll have a lot of very happy students also question you mentioned about the county process being onerous and I know we were working with the county to try to work on I'm talking about a theater set coordinator assuming that that goes forward and then we take on that responsibility um is that what other uses could a theater set coordinator do or is this kind of a full-time position that's my question is this like

[00:20:27] a full-time or a part-time happy to address that uh it is going to be full-time uh we also have a lot of other things in the state in the auditorium that need inspecting uh including our sound system our lights our fire curtains there's a whole lot of other additional work that's going to be picked up as part of that a big focus will be you know inspecting the sets working with students as they're constructing the sets providing feedback and how to enhance the designs make them safer also coordinating back and forth with the county reviewing designs it's it's gonna be that the person's gonna be fairly pretty busy okay that's great so maybe just a suggestion we call it not set

[00:21:07] coordinator but like theater coordinator I don't know I mean cassette set makes it sound like just that, but if they're also going to be looking at, and I know this is an issue with some high schools that I know of, like lighting is a problem, it's hot, the wires are bad, you know, things like that, like the stage, the sounds, all of that, the curtains, all the things you mentioned.

[00:21:29] But, you know, maybe it's fine to call it set coordinator. It's good feedback. Just a little bit of feedback. Okay, great. No, I appreciate the description of the items added to the budget. Thank you very much. anybody else say their piece okay so at this time normally after we do this and and you know I think this year has been terrific in the sense that you know we

[00:22:08] did this sort of at the same time we did our strategic plan so everything aligned and there's been a lot of discussions about you know what we'd like to see in the budget what we'd like to see moving forward over the next four years so I think that's made this much more efficient of a process and we appreciate all the hard work that the staff has put into the budget we come back and vote on the budget next week is that correct okay so before we do that I think at this point we will come to the board for a vote next Thursday so I just ask the board we're not voting but does anyone have any major opposition any

[00:22:46] issues because the budget will show up looking very similar to what it looks like now next Thursday and if you have any issues please bring them up with the superintendent over the next week to try to iron out and any any concerns or differences but if not I assume the board will vote for this budget as is next week do I have any any folks who object to what I'm saying no okay so that's our quote straw poll which is not a real vote but there's just for note for the minutes I see no opposition to the the budget as is so moving on we do need to get into closed session tonight so we do have a motion to enter closed

[00:23:25] session a motion is in order vice chair Jesse that pursuant to section 2.2 that has three seven one one and two point two that's three seven one two of the code of Virginia the Prince William County School Board enter closed session for the following reasons one to discuss with legal counsel and staff matters pertaining to an actual or prohibitively probable litigation specific legal matters involving the hiring assignment employment of the specific public employees pursuant to section 2.2 that's three seven one one a

[00:24:03] one and seven and eight of the code of Virginia you have a second any discussion all in favor signal by raising your hand any opposed yes unanimous motion passed okay at this time the Prince William County School Board will enter closed session and it's unclear when we'll return okay we have five at this time we are now reconvening an open session we will have a closed session certification

[00:24:42] motion an order six point zero one vice chair Jesse I move that pursuant to section two point two that's three seven one two of the code of Virginia the closed session of the Prince Rainey County School Board meeting of March 11th 2026 be certified by adopting the following resolution now therefore be resolved that the Prince Winnie County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member of knowledge one only the public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification resolution applies and to

[00:25:19] only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard and discussed or considered by the school board. Do you have a second? Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman. Ms. Zargarpur. Second. Any discussion?

[00:25:35] Please vote. All in favor, signify by raising your hand. Any opposed? The vote is 7 yes, 1 not present at vote. Wilk, motion passed. At this time the school board meeting will be adjourned.

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