ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996           TAG: 9602140037
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER 


SCHOOL BOARD BUDGET SESSIONS BEGIN

The Pulaski County School Board is gearing up for a grinding series of work sessions to prepare its budget.

"We've got all of our figures," Superintendent Bill Asbury told the board at its first budget workshop Monday night. "We just want to release them in understandable amounts, so we won't overwhelm you."

The regular board meeting will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, when Asbury will lay out the highlights of financial projections prepared by the administrative staff.

"Somehow I suspect it's not going to be the budget," said board Chairman Lewis Pratt.

The Board of Supervisors will have the final say over the budget after the School Board fine-tunes it.

This week, School Board members actually will see two budgets, the first one listing all of of the county's needs for the next school year - even if funding for them isn't available. "To ignore what the needs are means they'll never be mentioned in public," Asbury said.

The second version will be a flat budget, close to the current 1995-96 budget, covering what the school system must have to meet state requirements.

Each workshop will deal with a specific segment of the proposed budget, from salaries and equipment to programs and janitorial services. The figures will be adjusted as it becomes clear how much money will be available from the state and county.

One reason for working on the budget this way is to conserve paper, which has jumped in cost during the past year. Asbury said there is no point in preparing multiple copies of a book-size budget if the figures will be changing.


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