The Virginia Beach School Board approved a revenue sharing agreement with the City of Virginia Beach at its Nov. 20 meeting.

Under the new agreement, the school system will receive funding from twice the amount of revenue streams from the city, but at a lower percentage. The new agreement will give VBCPS 32.37 percent of all of the city’s general fund revenue streams generated by non-dedicated local taxes whereas before the schools had access to only seven revenue streams, but at a rate of 51.3 percent.

This agreement is in addition to the recent dedication of 4 cents of the 6-cent tax increase to VBCPS passed by City Council last year, which will provide the schools approximately $19 million annually.

However, even in light of such positive changes, the local economic news continues to be challenging.

At a joint City Council-School Board meeting, also held on Tuesday, Nov. 20, city and school budget and finance personnel shared a five-year financial forecast with the two policymaking bodies. Among the news shared at this meeting was the fact the city and the school system face a combined $46 million shortfall for the 2013-14 fiscal year.

Of this amount, the budget gap facing the schools is $23.4 million.