The Richmond School Board is still trying to come up with a finished spending plan to send to City Hall so it can be included in the proposed 2022-23 budget that Mayor Levar M. Stoney will present to City Council on Friday, March 4.

The board is scheduled to meet again at 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 28, to try to conclude its process, despite warnings from Mayor Stoney that might be too late.

However, any hopes of quicker completion were upended Tuesday night when five School Board members rejected Superintendent Jason Kamras’ budget proposal and opted to keep working on an alternative.

Mr. Kamras presented a proposed $554 million budget for the fiscal year that will begin July 1. That amount includes local, state and federal dollars, plus a separate request for more than $9 million for main- tenance of school buildings.

Mr. Kamras’ plan called for the city to contribute an additional $22 million in the 2022-23 fiscal year, boosting city spending on schools from $185 million to $207 million. The mayor had warned that he would not increase education spending if his team did not have the school’s spending plan by Friday.

A motion to approve the budget was made by board member Cheryl L. Burke, 7th District, and seconded by Dawn C. Page, 8th District, but the motion failed on a 5-4 vote.

Board members voting down Mr. Kamras’ budget plan were School Board Chairwoman Shonda Harris-Muhammed, 6th District; Mariah L. White, 2nd District; Kenya J. Gibson, 3rd District; Vice Chairman Jonathan M. Young, 4th District; and Stephanie M. Rizzi, 5th District.

The majority wanted more time to consider revisions to the Kamras plan.

The proposed changes the board is expected to consider next Monday include doubling enrollment at two specialty high schools, Franklin Military Academy and Richmond Community High School.

Also under consideration is to shift money to enable Richmond Virtual Acad- emy to serve 500 students rather than 250 as Mr. Kamras proposed. The online academy currently has 43 instructional staff

members. Mr. Kamras called for reducing that number to 10, while board members rejecting his plan hope to maintain at least 20 instructional staff.

Another item includes allowing at least 400 students enrolled in career training at the Richmond Technical Center to take science and math courses there to reduce their travel time to and from their home schools.

Other items included proposals to scrap Mr. Kamras plan to invest heavily in what some members see as potentially unneeded technology and to slash spending on outside curriculum and training consultants to provide more money for instruction.

There also are proposals to consider raises for substitute teachers and support staff and to cut deeper into the central office staff than the Kamras plan would allow.

Most of the Kamras budget plan would remain intact, including a 5 percent raise for teachers.

In a communication to the Free Press, Mayor Stoney showed his support for the Kamras plan.

“The superintendent has made a responsible proposal that provides competitive teacher pay, demonstrates judicious use of federal stimulus funding and realizes $44 million in savings. No budget is perfect; presenting no budget is irresponsible,” Mayor Stoney concluded.

Mrs. Burke expressed disappointment that the board would fail to meet the mayor’s deadline and lead him to avoid offering any increase in educational spending. She noted that education is just one of the areas that the mayor must consider. She said the city has housing needs to address, along with law enforcement, utilities and the varied needs of other city services.

“There is not a lot of money,” Mrs. Burke said. “I want the school district to be in a position where we could get more funding. We possibly won’t because we did not submit a budget in a timely manner. We need to work within the timeframe.”