In a meeting Tuesday, the Richmond School Board approved the Richmond Public Schools budget for the 2024-25 school year.

During the meeting, Kenya Gibson, 3rd District, motioned to delay the vote to approve the budget to discuss it in a separate meeting. Superintendent Jason Kamras disagreed with the motion, saying that only minor changes were made and that the board had the full budget book since January. Mr. Kamras added that the board should send the budget to Mayor Levar M. Stoney for approval sooner rather than later to avoid being at the back of the line for funding.

There was a 4-4 split vote on the motion and the budget was ultimately approved.

In the revised budget proposal, the expenditure increase went from an initial $36.2 million to $38 million. Changes made to the budget proposal include a $2.6 million increase for talent and staff compensation and a $1.3 million decrease in operations after cutting cleaning for select schools such as Huguenot High School and Carver Elementary School.

Most of the budget is allocated toward raises for RPS employees. School-based office associates went from a proposed 3% raise to an 8% raise, while other school-based office associates went from 3% to 22%. Maintenance and custodial staff’s proposed raises increased from 3% to 20%, while transportation staff raises increased from 3% to 10%. Family liaisons have been added to the list for raises at 10%.

The budget also would allow for an expansion of RPS200, and maintenance and repairs for school buildings, including new fire alarms, HVAC systems and roof repairs.

If approved, the budget would be the largest budget ever received by RPS in the past decade or so, Superintendent Kamras said. The School Board is set to adopt the final budget in June.