District overview
Bedford County Public Schools
How Bedford County Public Schools is governed and paid for, and what its board is working on now.
Who pays for Bedford County's schools, and who decides?
Bedford County Public Schools serves about 9,100 students across 22 schools in a large, mostly rural county. Like every Virginia division it cannot levy a tax of its own. The school board decides what the schools need and adopts a budget, but the money arrives as a transfer from the Bedford County Board of Supervisors plus state aid and federal grants. Virginia decides each locality's state aid using the Local Composite Index, a number that estimates how much a community can afford to pay for its own schools. A higher index means less state money. Bedford's index has climbed to 0.4593 for 2026-27, and the division calculates that every 1% change is worth about $730,000. Layered on top is the end of a funding arrangement dating from the reversion of Bedford City from an independent city to a town, which the division projects will open a roughly $2.9 million gap in its 2028 budget.
The board proposes; the county appropriates
The superintendent presented the FY2026-2027 request at a March 5, 2026 budget work session and the board acted on it on March 12. The Bedford County Board of Supervisors approved an amended budget on May 28, 2026, and the division published the amended figures on August 6, 2026. Total spending across all funds is $143,754,757, up 5.23% from $136,612,318.
The growth is coming from Richmond, not Bedford
State funding rose $5,885,955 to $89,451,417 for 2026-27, a 7.04% increase, while the county's operating transfer stayed at exactly $34,003,378 for a second year. Per student, the state's figures show the state share rising from $7,283 in 2024-25 to an estimated $8,483 in 2026-27, while the local share falls from $4,365 to an estimated $4,115.
A seven-member elected board, meeting monthly
The Bedford County School Board has seven members elected by district and meets at 5:00 p.m. at the School Administration Office in Bedford. In January 2026 it agreed 7-0 to move most of its detailed discussion out of standing committees and into full-board work sessions, keeping committees for as-needed use and combining facilities, capital improvement and PPEA work into one monthly committee.
A squeeze between too-full and too-empty schools
Some Bedford schools are near capacity while others are well under it. Forest Elementary was reported at 98% of capacity and New London Academy at 89%, driven by new housing, while the division has been weighing whether to close under-used buildings. That tension is the reason a county-wide boundary study is now underway.
None of this means the division is badly run. Bedford rose from #36 to #31 among Virginia divisions on 2024-2025 SOL results, every school remained fully accredited, and it was the first Virginia division to certify all of its campuses as Heart Safe Schools. The financial pressures described here are largely structural, set by a state funding formula and a county transfer the school board does not control.
Where the division stands
Federal NCES Common Core of Data district directory, 2022 collection year. External federal data rather than a division document, so it is context.
Federal NCES Common Core of Data district directory, 2022 collection year.
Up $7,142,439, or 5.23%, from $136,612,318 in FY2025-2026.
Unchanged from FY2025-2026, a 0.00% difference, while state funding rose 7.04% over the same period.
Up from $14,588 actual in 2024-25 and $14,857 estimated for 2025-26. Reported under Code of Virginia section 22.1-92 and covering state, sales tax, federal and local shares.
Ten schools were On Track and four Distinguished. Off Track means the school does not meet expectations and receives extra state support. All Bedford schools remained fully accredited.
Major projects
County-wide K-12 redistricting study
Underway, vendor engaged, no boundaries changed yetAn outside firm is studying attendance boundaries across all three of the division's zones and all grade levels, so that boundaries match where students actually live and school buildings are used efficiently. The board reached consensus on the idea in April 2026, the division issued a request for proposals on April 23, 2026, proposals were due June 3, and the board directed the study to proceed in June. Demographic Analysts Advisors is the firm working with the division.
- Board reaches consensus to seek a division-wide redistricting study
- Request for proposals issued to outside firms
- Proposals due to the division
- Board acts on vendor selection for the county-wide plan
- Public work session with Demographic Analysts Advisors on the firm's findings
Funding
Division operating budget, through a contract with a third-party vendor
Stewartsville Elementary decommissioning
Delayed to June 30, 2027 and folded into the county-wide studyA March 2026 presentation proposed closing Stewartsville Elementary and reconfiguring the Staunton River zone, sending kindergarten through 4th grade to Goodview Elementary, 5th graders to Staunton River Middle and 8th graders to Staunton River High. In April 2026 the closing was delayed until June 30, 2027. The superintendent has argued that keeping under-capacity schools open costs money that could go to instruction and pay, while the final decision now depends on the county-wide boundary work.
- Board opts to repair the HVAC and roof at Stewartsville and consider Goodview construction, with future rezoning
- Staunton River zone reconfiguration presented, proposing to close Stewartsville
- Decommissioning delayed until June 30, 2027
- Waste water treatment facility replacement at Stewartsville reported among summer projects
Funding
Division operating and maintenance budgets; closure is presented as a cost saving rather than a funded project
Five-year maintenance and capital improvement plan
In progress, funded from a growing reserveThe division runs building work through a maintenance reserve fund that both the county and the schools pay into. The plan lists $15,548,220 of projected work over five years, including roofs at Big Island, Moneta, Jefferson Forest and Staunton River Middle, HVAC at Jefferson Forest High, Staunton River Middle and Susie G. Gibson, LED lighting at New London, plumbing at Stewartsville, and electrical work at Boonsboro. The reserve reaches $7,689,650 in 2026-27, up 16.69%.
- Roof painting completed at Montvale Elementary
- Bedford Elementary painting project due for completion
- Theatre and sidewalk canopy projects completed at Liberty High and Staunton River High
- HVAC and roofing work at Staunton River High and Liberty High scheduled for completion
Funding
Maintenance contingency reserve fund, built from county and division set-asides, $7,689,650 in FY2026-2027
Recent news
Built from 53 official documents published by Bedford County Public Schools between September 2025 and September 2026 and gathered from the division's own listing pages: the twelve monthly superintendent's reports to the school board, the FY2026-2027 amended budget and the FY2025-2026 approved budget with their supporting schedules, the FY2025 audit set, the 2024-2025 Annual School Report financial section and state cost-per-student table, six family newsletters, and the 2026 board meeting calendar. Twenty-seven of the budget documents are image-only PDFs and were read using optical character recognition.
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