The Chesterfield County School Board unanimously adopted an operating budget last night that restores 427 positions slated to be cut, eliminates employee furlough days and keeps current class sizes. Initially, the proposed budget had a $52 million shortfall and 525 jobs were to be cut. A reallocation of funds and an infusion of $20.1 million in federal stimulus money reduced the deficit to $32.5 million. With the federal money, the operating budget for the next fiscal year is $571.6 million.

Chesterfield’s Human Services Department is proposing $3.4 million in cuts from its $103 million budget proposal for fiscal 2010. Up to 15 full-time employees could lose jobs, and 25 to 30 part-time positions could be eliminated. Also under one cost-cutting suggestion, county library branches would close at 7 p.m. instead of 9 p.m.

Hanover County’s budget for the next year will be lean, but County Administrator Cecil R. “Rhu” Harris Jr. said he doesn’t anticipate any layoffs. Harris presented his proposed $394.3 million budget to the Board of Supervisors tonight. It’s down 5.6 percent from the current $417.7 million budget. Harris told the board that, under normal circumstances, he’d be presenting a budget that enhances county services.

More than 60 Dinwiddie County school-system jobs, including 27 teaching positions, would be cut under a budget proposed by Superintendent Charles Maranzano Jr. last night during a meeting with the county’s Board of Supervisors. In response to a $2.6 million loss in revenue, Maranzano unveiled a $39.6 million budget that would trim 63 jobs and several programs in a school system that employs 850 people and serves 4,600 students. He said the budget reductions would have a negative impact on “programs, personnel and, unfortunately, on the schoolchildren in our school system.“

Virginia Tech officials say they are implementing across-the-board budget cuts of 5 percent in response to anticipated reductions in state appropriations. Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger and senior university officials outlined the cuts yesterday. The university expects a reduction of at least $42.5 million in state appropriations in the 2009-10 fiscal year compared with the previous year.

Each school will be affected differently by across-the-board budget cuts of $52 million, Chesterfield County school principals told the School Board last night. Peter Koste, principal of Manchester High School, told the board in a work session that he hopes that there will be flexibility in the budget for schools to keep crucial positions.

The show must go on. Despite slashed budgets, layoffs and myriad financial woes, the Richmond arts community says it will do whatever it takes to keep the lights on, seats filled and galleries bustling. No one is expecting any kind of a bailout. “We’re supposed to be creative,“ said Paul A. “Gus” Stuhlreyer, general director and CEO of Virginia Opera. “We get paid to be creative. Now we have to be creative.“

Cultural arts have a billion-dollar economic impact in Virginia. Research by Virginians for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts shows that arts and cultural activities create millions in income, produce millions in labor compensations and provide fulland part-time jobs for state residents. More than a third of paid admissions come from out-of-state visitors.

Among Lee Ann Novak’s six children, her 16-year-old daughter stands out. In her first year of high school in Virginia Beach, she scored 1,200 on her PSATs. She has been lauded for her virtuosity on the violin and piano and has carried an A average. But on a May night two years ago, Novak shivered with fear when she found her daughter standing at the bedroom door wearing only a T-shirt, holding a broom stick and muttering incoherently.

In Marion, in the heart of rural Virginia, serving psychiatric needs is not easy. The unemployment rate is generally among the highest in the state, there’s no public transportation, and private psychiatric hospitals are scarce. The nearest one is in Salem. The state’s Southwestern Virginia Mental Health Institute in Marion serves the huge area—a little more than 500,000 people—with its 172 beds for adults, geriatric patients and adolescent psychiatric patients.

If the budget situation for Richmond schools is as dire as expected, 155 employees could lose their jobs and the city could close a school.

We believe it was Albert Jay Nock who set the ideal class size at two—one teacher and one student sitting on opposite ends of a log. The class likely would be studying Plutarch. Virginia’s budget crunch has dramatic implications for education. Although governors and legislators typically strive to shield them from drastic cuts, this time schools will not emerge unscathed. Gov. Tim Kaine says he wants to minimize the classroom effects of spending cuts. Local officials say the consequences for instruction will be negative and profound.

Chesterfield County school officials have invited about 700 members of the community to hear a pitch for financial and volunteer help in light of looming budget cuts. The county sent letters to people identified as “respected, influential leaders,“ according to the letter, though the meetings are open to anyone. The next meeting is tomorrow at 7 p.m. at Midlothian High School.

State budget cuts and the weak economy have forced Hopewell government agencies and departments to reduce spending on travel, supplies, phone usage and overtime.

As the realities of impending budget cuts sink in, school divisions across the state are considering the consequences as they prepare spending plans for the next school year.