Good afternoon and welcome to Hampton City Council work session.

We have several presentations uh on our agenda this evening, so we're gonna get started, and I'm gonna ask the clerk to uh call the road.

Councilman Bowman.

Present.

Vice Mayor Brown here.

Councilwoman Campbell, present, councilwoman Farabee, Councilwoman Harper, present, Councilwoman Muggler, Mayor Gray.

Present.

And with that, I'm gonna ask City Manager to uh introduce the uh first presentation.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

As you know, today is a budget work session, and we're very pleased that our first item is a presentation from our school board and school superintendent team.

And I'm I'm very pleased to say that we have the best school division in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

And um that is evidenced by statistics, not just personal opinion.

Although, as a parent of three uh graduates who have done exceedingly well based upon their um Hampton City School Education, I can also say that with confirmation.

So I believe Dr.

Mason and Dr.

Haynes are gonna kick us off, and they will be followed in turn with a presentation from their chief financial officer.

I also want to acknowledge that it appears we have all of our school board members in attendance as well.

So we have a full house uh well represented by our our great school division.

All right, good afternoon, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, Council members, and City Manager Bunting.

It certainly is a pleasure to stand before you today and represent Hampton City schools, and we do have all of our school board members present with the exception of Mr.

Kilgore, who's actually away on VSBA business.

Um, so he's he's actually doing school board business, but just not here today, but he's confident that we can certainly continue to carry the ship in his absence.

All right.

So thank you for having us here today.

The Virginia School Board Association, better known as VSBA, reminds us that school boards have three responsibilities.

That is to select and hire a superintendent, institute policy development, and approve and oversee a budget.

We take these responsibilities in the highest regard.

The budget we bring to you today represents strategic, thoughtful planning, and a reflection of our continued commitment to being responsible stewards of taxpayers' dollars.

I would like to take a moment to individually introduce our board members.

We have our vice chair, Stephanie Afonger, we have Dr.

Tina Banks Gray, Miss Ann Cherry, uh, Mr.

Samuels, and Dr.

Reginald Woodhouse.

I was looking around for a minute, I was like, where did they go?

I want to make sure I get everybody in there.

So Hampton City School's mission is to work in collaboration with our community to ensure academic excellence for every child every day, whatever it takes.

Aligned with this mission, the school board provided the superintendent with our priorities during the development of this budget.

The priorities for this fiscal year 2026 budget include maximizing every child's learning, attracting, developing, and retaining exceptional staff, and creating safe and nurturing environments.

This is something that we truly brag about throughout the Commonwealth as we work together to create strong school environment and a strong and safe community for our students.

Because of your investment in our young people, Hampton City Schools is not only thriving, but leading the way.

Other notable accomplishments include the class of 2024, posting an on-time graduation rate of 97.63%, posting the highest on-time graduation rate in the state when compared to school divisions with over 300 students in the class of 2024.

The class of 2024 dropout rate was a 0.5%, which is not only significantly lower than the state's average, but also the lowest dropout rate in Virginia when compared to school divisions with over 300 students in the class of 2024.

Thank you for your continued support, your partnership, your investment in our city, and your commitment to our students and staff.

With that, I would like to present our division superintendent, Dr.

Raymond Haynes.

Good afternoon, once again, Mayor Gray, Vice Mayor Brown, Council members, City Manager Bunting.

It's a pleasure to join you all this afternoon as we present the school division's budget for fiscal year 2026 to council.

Before going any further, though, I would like to recognize Assistant City Manager Brian DeProfio and thank him for the time he committed to our team during the budget process and his assistance throughout the process.

Is he here this afternoon?

There he is.

Additionally, I would also like to publicly recognize and thank Chair Mason, Vice Chair Fonda, and the entire school board for their continued leadership as well as their level of involvement throughout this year's budget process.

The board priorities, as shared by Dr.

Mason, and the community's feedback have been drivers for our team's decision making throughout the budget process.

As the council is aware, we are still awaiting a final budget from Richmond.

In the meantime, we're looking forward to sharing with council this afternoon the highlights of the board approved fiscal year 2026 budget, some of which were discussed during the two by two budget buddy budget meetings you all participated in earlier this year.

For example, you will hear this afternoon our continued and relentless efforts on recruitment and retention as we look to hire and retain exceptional staff through a competitive benefits package.

Additionally, we are continuing our focus on having a safe and nurturing school environment or safe and nurturing school environments by adding additional school security officers in our elementary and pre-K buildings.

I would also like to personally thank City Manager Bunting.

We recognize the importance of having that collaborative and strong relationship with City Council, but I must say I believe we have the greatest city manager in the United States, not just in the state of Virginia.