Virginia Code 22.1-98.2: Certain agreements; adjustment of state share for basic aid.
A. Any school board of a school division in which fewer than 1,100 students were included in average daily membership for the preceding school year, in a locality that has a local composite index of .6000 or greater, and has 65 percent or more of its local taxes coming from real estate taxes, as calculated by the Auditor of Public Accounts and reported annually to the Department, upon entering into certain cost-savings agreements with a contiguous school division for the consolidation or sharing of educational, administrative, or support services, shall receive the state share for basic aid computed on the basis of the composite index of local ability-to-pay of the contiguous school division, calculated annually.
Terms Used In Virginia Code 22.1-98.2
- Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
- Department: means the Department of Education. See Virginia Code 22.1-1
- Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
- Locality: means a county, city, or town as the context may require. See Virginia Code 1-221
- Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
- real estate: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights and appurtenances thereto and interests therein, other than a chattel interest. See Virginia Code 1-219
- School board: means the school board that governs a school division. See Virginia Code 22.1-1
- State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
- Superintendent: means the Superintendent of Public Instruction. See Virginia Code 22.1-1
The Board shall develop eligibility criteria for such cost-savings and service-sharing agreements and for the adjustment of the state share for basic aid, consistent with the appropriation act.
The Governor shall approve the adjustment to the state share prior to the disbursement of funds. The Department shall annually report to the Chairmen of the House Committee on Appropriations and Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriations the cost-savings agreements made and the adjusted state shares so approved.
B. The local school board receiving the adjusted state share shall not use the additional funds received to supplant local funds appropriated for education. The adjusted state share shall be used solely for educational purposes and shall not be used to reduce local operating expenditures for public education from the prior fiscal year. However, no school division shall be required to maintain a per pupil expenditure for operations that exceeds the per pupil expenditure in the prior fiscal year. The superintendent of the school division shall inform the Superintendent of the public education purpose for which these local funds shall be used.
C. Nothing in this section shall prohibit the Commonwealth from terminating or modifying any program or function under which distribution to a local school board has been made, and if so terminated or modified all obligations hereunder shall cease or be reduced in proportion with such modifications, as the case may be.
D. Except as provided in subsection C, such contractual agreements shall remain in effect until terminated by the relevant school divisions. If any such contractual agreements between the relevant school divisions terminate, the Commonwealth’s obligation under this section shall cease.
E. This agreement and adjusted state payment shall be in lieu of any existing funds a locality receives from a Small School Division Assistance grant.
2004, c. 820; 2008, cc. 589, 705; 2019, cc. 405, 406; 2022, c. 355.