ROANOKE, Va. – The Roanoke City School Board hosted a meeting Tuesday night to discuss the school budget and the millions in deficit.
This comes after the city recently changed its school funding formula from 40% of tax revenue to 34%. Now, the school board has to get creative and start discussing potential cuts and staffing reductions for the 2026-2027 school year.
Leanne Jackson, chief financial officer for Roanoke City Public Schools, said no decisions have been made.
“No decisions have been made. This is just an ongoing process that we want to make sure that the school board has all the information that we discuss it publicly that we can have opportunities like tonight with the public hearing,” Jackson said.
Possible cuts include eliminating extracurricular bus transportation, eliminating two-thirds of the 3-year-old preschools and returning gifted and talented students back to their home schools, which would mean cutting PLATO, a program designed to challenge gifted students.
Many at the meeting on Tuesday voiced their concerns about the potential cutting of the PLATO program.
“I’m also here to ask the school board not to get rid of PLATO. It is very important to me and my friends,” one third grader said.
“Before PLATO, he was fine academically but he was disengaged. He would finish his work early, felt bored, would get in trouble for being a distraction and spent long periods waiting for others to catch up,” one Roanoke mother said.
“PLATO’s the reason I’m excited to come to school every day,” another third grader said.
“My daughter has gained a lot of confidence in all the subjects and has found increased joy in learning like she never has before,” a father said.
The city of Roanoke changed its school funding formula, forcing the school district to make up the difference.
“There’s a new formula that’s a lower percentage than what we’ve been used to in over a decade so that does require quite a shift,” Jackson said.
“All of the things that we have offered at Roanoke City Schools are for a reason and because they bring value to our students so it’s a difficult thing to consider cutting any of them,” Jackson said.
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