The Lunenburg County School Board expects to soon finish developing its budget for the next academic year.

The budget is expected to be finished after a Thursday meeting between the Lunenburg County Board of Education and the Lunenburg County Board of Supervisors.

“This has been a very interesting task,” School Superintendent Charles M Berkley Jr. said during the school board’s Monday, March 14, meeting. “We are within our budget, and meeting the obligations of the students.”

The system has had to endure a loss of approximately $280,000 this year because enrollment was projected to be approximately 1,522 students, but it instead ended up at just 1,500 students, Berkley said.

Various funding sources are tied to the number of students.

School and other officials are projecting enrollment to be 1,491 students next year.

The Thursday, March 24, budget work session will begin at 6 p.m. with the supervisors and school board sharing a meal before convening the meeting. The session will be held at Lunenburg Middle School. For the supervisors, it will be a continuation of their Thursday, March 10, meeting.

The only public hearing on the proposed school budget was held Monday, Jan 11, and drew only two speakers — both school system employees.

Sherry Clark advocated for another math teacher and for full middle and high school music programs.

She also joined Hope Dunbar in asking that there be designated space for and a designated teacher to oversee the Virtual Virginia online courses.

Dunbar noted that additional teachers are also going to be needed to help supervise students once the new Charger Courtyard is developed at the high school.

The high school is undertaking an approximately $15,000 project that will see the upgrading of a patio into a courtyard.

“We need at least one or two more people out there to cover those areas,” Dunbar said told the board at the time.