We have quorum.

And read the chamber emergency evacuation plan announcement public speaker guidelines.

Thank you.

Upon activation of the emergency alarm signal, all persons should immediately exit the building.

Please use the exits to the left or right front of the council chamber or the north or south stale whales outside the rear doors of the chamber.

Do not use elevators or escalators.

After exiting the building, security would direct everyone down 9th Street to the fence area located between Clay and Lee Streets.

Able person should assist visually and hearing a pair of visitors with exiting the building.

Public speaker guidelines.

Individuals wishing to speak during public hearings in the public comment period are generally allowed three minutes to speak.

Persons appearing before the committee are not allowed to campaign for public office.

Promote private business ventures, use language of a personal nature which insults or demeans any person, including comments directed at public officials or staff members that are not related to their official duties or address the question staff members directly.

All questions are to be directed to the committee chair.

Failure to adhere to the guidelines may result in speakers forfeiting any remaining time and further disciplinary action is necessary, which can include barring from attendance at future meetings of the committee for a period of six months.

And Madam Chair, all members of the committee are in attendance today with the exception of Ms.

Jones, and you do have a quorum.

Thank you, Madam Clerk.

Are there any members present to speak for public comment?

Public comment is now open.

Is there anyone present who wishes to address this committee regarding items not on today's agenda?

Madam Chair, seeing none and no one signed up to speak virtually before the 10 a.m.

deadline.

The public comment period is now closed and back to the committee.

Madam Clerk, I see Mr.

Strauss is raising his hand at the back of the are you, Mr.

Trasser, you're here to speak to the a paper or are you here to speak for an item that is not on the agenda.

Are you here to let me take a wild guess?

Are you here to speak in uh for the um that we've got two on the agenda the sales tax uh resolution to put the on for the referendum and the um uh and the non-departmental grant?

If you are here to speak on items that are not on that agenda, please come for any member will please come forward.

If if you are here to speak on any of those agenda items that are listed, then we will hold your comment until okay, little help from an old friend.

Um, all right, madam clerk.

We are gonna revise uh the if it's if it pleases the committee.

I'm going to um revise the agenda ever so slightly to allow um for our uh superintendent to provide his update first.

I think that's important.

One we get him, uh we can kind of knock out all of the RPS items in one shot.

So you do not have to um stay on uh with us, and your time is very important.

Um, we have our school board chair, welcome.

Uh thank you so much for being here.

Um, thought it would be helpful for you to give and provide your update to us and and help us set the stage, and then we'll go right into uh the the uh the ordinance here.

So um that's before us.

So without further ado, superintendent cameras, if you're able to come and provide your regularly scheduled series of RPS updates.

We'd love to have you join us.

And I know you're sick, so thank you.

Extra credit for I know you're a little under the weather, so extra credit for being here with us today.

We appreciate you.

Thank you, madam chair and members of the committee.

Um, I will jump right in.

Obviously, the most pressing matter that RPS is facing at the moment is the impact of the final state budget on our budget.

In short, we are facing a roughly nine million dollar deficit that was largely driven by the elimination of proposed one-time flexible funding.

Uh, that was in the House version of the General Assembly's budget.

We were slated to receive about 7.6 million in one-time funding.

Um, that was zeroed out in the state's budget.

Additionally, you may have heard about the General Assembly passing a 4% raise for teachers, which is laudable.

However, because of the way uh raises are funded in the Commonwealth, uh, we actually only receive a portion of the cost of that raise, and so, in essence, uh we receive about a third of the cost of the raise, and the locality has to take on the burden of the remaining two-thirds.

As a result, we will not be able to fully draw down the funds for the 4% raise.

We are doing a 2% plus a 1.17% step increase.

So in total, a 3.17% increase for teachers.

We won't unfortunately be able to get all the way to the 4%.

One way to think about this is for every 35 cents roughly we get from the state for a raise.

The locality, in this case, the city of Richmond has to come up with 65 cents, and that is a function of our LCI and the fact that we actually staff beyond the minimum requirements of the state, which causes the cost to increase as well.