The City of Roanoke met on Monday to discuss an amendment to the 2024-2025 annual budget for the Roanoke City Public Schools budget alongside pay raises for city employees.
The amendment would add an additional appropriation of $17.9 million to RCPS to address a shortfall caused by “the omission of appropriations for capital projects.”
“It just makes sure that those capital projects can continue toward completion,” Mayor Joe Cobb said.
The projects affected include building renovations at William B. Robertson and Booker T. Washington schools, a new playground at Westside Elementary School and the construction of a new school building at Preston Park Elementary.
Mayor Cobb emphasized that the school district already has this money and that council just had to formally approve the spending.
“It affects the school budget because it’s above what was originally appropriated to them this year,” Mayor Cobb said. “Because there’s a capital fund balance, they came to us to appropriate the $17.8 million tonight.”
This request comes after the City Council recently made changes to how the city will fund public schools.
The Roanoke City Public School board is expected to approve its budget on June 10th.
Meanwhile, the decision to give pay raises across the City of Roanoke was unanimously approved by the council.
The raises ranged from either the next step in an employee’s pay plan or 3%.
“The step plans have their own rates of increase,” Mayor Cobb said. “So it acknowledges those as well as 3% for all other city employees.
Mayor Cobb says he sees these pay raises as a way of saying thank you to over three hundred employees.
“A lot of what they do is behind the scenes, from park maintenance to trees to landscaping to solid waste management to street cleaning,” Mayor Cobb said. “Sometimes these are our unsung heroes because their work continues regardless of the weather.”
