District overview
Pittsylvania County Schools
How Pittsylvania County Schools is governed and paid for, and what its budget year looks like.
Who pays for Pittsylvania County's schools, and who decides?
Pittsylvania County Schools serves about 7,900 students in 21 schools in Virginia's largest county by land area, with its central office in Chatham. Like every Virginia division it cannot levy a tax. The school board decides what the schools need and adopts a budget, but the money arrives as an appropriation from the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, plus state aid, a share of state sales tax earmarked for schools, and federal grants. The division's own yearly notice to parents shows the balance shifting: per student, local funds rise from $3,342 in 2024-2025 to a proposed $4,041 in 2026-2027, while federal funds fall from $1,950 to $1,632 and state funds barely move between the last two years. Total spending per student for operations is proposed at $17,742.
A published budget calendar drives the year
The board sets out its budget steps in advance. For FY2026-2027 that meant reviewing the process with principals on October 16, 2025, public presentations of budget priorities on November 11 and December 9, budget requests due December 17, review of the Governor's proposal on January 8, 2026, board approval of budget initiatives on February 10, review of the draft on March 10, and a public hearing with board consideration of the final proposal on March 26, 2026.
The county's share is growing fastest
In the adopted FY2025-2026 budget local funds rose $1,738,559 to $26,370,554 while federal funds fell $1,967,574 to $12,052,640. Per student the local share has risen about 21% in two years. State funds are the largest single source at $75,137,290, but they are close to flat between the last two years.
The board meets monthly, in the evening
Regular school board meetings are held on Tuesday evenings at 7:00 p.m. in the board room, with budget committee sessions and public budget sessions scheduled around them, some starting at 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. The division streams meetings on its own YouTube channel and lists a recording for each meeting by date.
Building money has been squeezed
Spending per student on facilities and capital outlay fell from $805 in 2024-2025 to an estimated $172 in 2025-2026, with $267 proposed for 2026-2027. In the adopted FY2025-2026 budget facilities are funded at $1,387,022, against $6,485,608 in the prior amended budget, though that earlier figure included one-time carryover money.
A falling facilities number is not proof of neglect. Part of the drop reflects one-time carryover money in an earlier amended budget rather than a cut to ongoing work, and the division continued to raise pay scales by 3% for 2026-2027. What the public documents do not show is a multi-year building plan that would explain how deferred work will be caught up.
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.
Down from the $135,819,453 FY2024-2025 amended budget, which included $13,837,975 of carryover approved by the Board of Supervisors in September 2024.
Up from $16,730 actual in 2024-2025 and $17,447 estimated in 2025-2026. Covers operations only, excluding facilities, debt service and capital outlay.
Up from $3,342 actual in 2024-2025 and $3,705 estimated in 2025-2026, a rise of about 21% in two years, while the federal share falls from $1,950 to $1,632.
Up from $47,531.05 on the 2025-2026 schedule, a 3.0% increase applied across the pay scales.
Major projects
FY2026-2027 budget cycle
Calendar published and followed through a March 2026 public hearingThe school board runs its budget on a published calendar so families and staff can see when decisions happen and when the public can speak. The FY2026-2027 cycle ran from an October 2025 review with principals through two public presentations of budget priorities, a budget committee review of the Governor's proposal, a public session on budget initiatives, and a final public hearing.
- Public presentation of budget priorities to the school board
- All budget requests due to the central office
- Budget committee reviews requests and the Governor's budget proposal
- Public session, then board review and approval of budget initiatives
- School board reviews the draft 2026-2027 budget
- Public hearing and board consideration of the final budget proposal
Funding
State aid, a school share of state sales tax, an appropriation from the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors, and federal grants
2026-2027 pay scales and contracts
Published and in force for the 2026-2027 yearThe division raised every published pay scale by 3.0% for 2026-2027, covering teachers on 200, 205, 210 and 220 day contracts, administration, professional and supervisory staff, support staff, cafeteria staff, custodians, bus drivers and mini-bus attendants, and substitute and tutoring rates. Contracts are signed electronically through the division's KeyNet system.
- 2025-2026 pay scales and contract e-signing instructions published
- 2026-2027 contract e-signing instructions issued with the new scales
Funding
Division operating budget, within the instruction and support categories
Built from 33 official documents published by Pittsylvania County Schools on its own listing pages at www.pcs.k12.va.us: the FY2026-2027 budget calendar, the adopted FY2025-2026 and FY2024-2025 budgets, the April 2025 and April 2026 per-pupil expenditure notices to parents, the 2025-2026 class size and pupil-teacher ratio report, and the complete 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 salary schedules. Three of the documents are image-only PDFs and were read using optical character recognition.
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