Poverty affects minority students in Charlottesville City Schools at more than three times the rate it affects white students, and poverty has grown concurrently with diversity in the division over the last 20 years.
In 2015, more than 86 percent of black students in the division and more than 74 percent of other minority students qualified for free and reduced-price lunches, according to budget documents presented at a Charlottesville City School Board work session on the fiscal year 2017-18 budget. Just over 20 percent of white students qualified, the data showed.
The presentation also showed that school enrollment growth is far outpacing budget growth. Since FY2011, the student population has grown by 19 percent, while the school’s budget has grown 16 percent since FY2008, documents showed.
Division officials said the increasing enrollment should drive down the division’s composite index — the formula by which a locality’s ability to contribute funds to schools is calculated — but that adjustment has not happened yet.
“Because we have seen our enrollment grow so rapidly, we should see that [index] come down, just because of the added burden of the extra [student enrollment],” said Assistant Superintendent Ed Gillaspie.
The proportions of poor students and of minority students who are not black have both grown substantially over the last 10 years in the division, said Kim Powell, city schools director of finance.
Budget documents showed the percentage of minority students who are not black grew from 8.75 percent in 2005 to 18.64 percent in 2015.
“It gives that ‘Tale of Two Cities’ kind of view,” Powell said. “It tells the story that our demographics in our schools are not necessarily the same as those of our city as a whole.”
The numbers show a reality that often gets overlooked, said School Board member Juandiego Wade.
“I think one of the things that is really unique about the city of Charlottesville is that we have this dichotomy [between rich and poor], and we are only 10 square miles,” Wade said. “We have the reputation of being this really affluent city, and we are, but it is clear that not everybody is rolling in dough.”
