A large crowd, including all five members of the county’s board of supervisors, filled the J. Murray Brooks Auditorium at Thomas Hunter Middle School Tuesday night, with many speakers expressing concern over possible ways to handle an expected cut of roughly $1.1 million in local funds from the school board’s FY26 budget request.
Possible budget reduction options that seemed to draw the most concern from the public involved cutting non-special education regional programs like the Chesapeake Bay Governor’s School, welding, nursing and NJROTC programs, eliminating support of the Mathews High School athletics program, and replacing the division’s custodial employees with contracted services.
“We’re all in a very difficult situation with a shortfall in funding both for the county and the school division,” said School Superintendent Dr. David S. Daniel in laying out the options available to the school board to meet this expected shortfall. He described it as cutting with “a razor blade as o...