{"id":127202,"date":"2026-03-02T05:47:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/127202\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T05:47:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T05:47:32","slug":"city-school-board-hears-first-reading-of-budget-henry-county-enterprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/127202\/","title":{"rendered":"City school board hears first reading of budget \u2013 Henry County Enterprise"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/26HCE0219_Page_10_Image_0002.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-49545\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/26HCE0219_Page_10_Image_0002.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"955\" height=\"1066\"  \/><\/a>Paris Turner earned second place in a statewide art contest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/26HCE0219_Page_10_Image_0003.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-49546\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/26HCE0219_Page_10_Image_0003.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"959\" height=\"1468\"  \/><\/a>By Jessica Dillon<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">The Martinsville School Board met Feb. 9 to hear the first reading of its proposed fiscal year 2026\u201327 budget. Board members also approved a school improvement grant for both elementary schools aimed at raising math and reading scores.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">The preliminary budget reflects an anticipated revenue increase of $1,223,486. It includes a proposed 2% raise for employees, totaling $411,240 in additional costs. Each school submitted individual requests, with several seeking specialized teaching positions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Clearview Early Learning Center requested $11,275 for furniture, while Albert Harris Elementary School asked for $80,000 to fund a gifted teacher shared with Patrick Henry Elementary School.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Martinsville High School requested $85,000 for a reading specialist.<\/p>\n<p>Albert Harris Elementary submitted the largest number of requests, including a special education transition teacher ($80,000), a full-time substitute teacher ($80,000), a math coach ($80,000), one or two resource paraprofession \u2013 als ($34,000 each), a special education p a r a professiona l ($34,000), and a bus monitor ($48,440).<\/p>\n<p>Martinsville Middle School requested a part-time English learner instructor ($55,000) and an AVID instructor ($55,000). Districtwide requests also include $155,178 for technology replacements and $50,180 for safety needs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Additional funding requests include $204,000 for transportation, $124,256 for student services, and $320,000 for instruction. The total budget request is $2,421,329. The proposal has not yet been submitted to the City Council, and the state budget has not been finalized.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">The board also updated several policies to meet current standards, including BBBB (Student Representative to the School Board), CHD\/BFE (Administration in Policy Absence), DI (Financial Accounting and Reporting), DN (Disposal of Surplus Items), EF (Food Service Management), and LBD (Home Instruction).<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Snow makeup days were announced for Feb. 16 and March 13, with the goal of avoiding conflicts with spring break. No additional contingency plans were discussed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Recognitions included:<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">\u00b7 Paris Turner, second-place winner in a statewide art contest<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">\u00b7 School Counselor Appreciation Week<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">\u00b7 Virginia Association of Science Teachers President Jill Collins<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">\u00b7 MCPS Division-wide Teacher of the Year Karla Scales<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">\u00b7 School Board Appreciation Month<\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\">\u00b7 School Board Clerk Appreciation Week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paris Turner earned second place in a statewide art contest. By Jessica Dillon The Martinsville School Board met&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127203,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-127202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/127203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}