ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, February 14, 1996 TAG: 9602140044
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE AND BRIAN KELLEY STAFF WRITERS
It wasn't nude dancing, but the parents who filled the seats at Monday night's Board of Supervisors meeting came for their own hot topic: The proposed $53.3 million school budget.
"I hope this budget could also be viewed as a moral issue. I urge you to approach [the budget] with the same fervor as the other decision," said Auburn parent Tom Kegley, referring to the supervisor's earlier decision to ban nude dancing at Juicie's Exotic Cabaret.
The presentation came after the throng of people present for the Juicie's public hearing dispersed.
For the first time, the School Board chairwoman, rather than the superintendent, presented the proposed budget to the Board of Supervisors.
Annette Perkins emphasized that the budget was developed from Goals 2006, a list of initiatives created by area parents and teachers.
"This is really more than numbers. It's what we consider to be our mission and vision," Perkins said.
The vision includes a 12 percent increase over what the supervisors funded this year, and could require as much as an 18-cent real-estate tax increase.
Though the real nit-picking over budget details won't begin for a few weeks, several supervisors began asking questions and requesting more information about Goals 2006 and other initiatives.
"These budgets usually have new initiatives and some just disappear and others come along," said Supervisor Henry Jablonski. "Why do we have all these initiatives when we need money for basic things like salary increases?"
Perkins said all the goals are essential and promised to send reports of how effective previous Goals 2006 programs have been.
Along with funding requests for math and science equipment, additional support staff and a 7 percent employee pay raise, the budget includes the doubling of School Board salaries - an item Supervisor Joe Stewart commented on more than once.
"I'll support this whole thing if you go find one farmer who's gotten a raise this year," he said.
To that, Prices Fork parent Lori Sheppard said later that she wanted to bring a farmer to meet Stewart. "He told me he'd want his taxes raised as long as he knew it would be earmarked for schools."
Later Monday night, County Administrator Betty Thomas distributed her 1996-97 county budget proposal to the Board of Supervisors. Thomas, as in past years, made no recommendation on the School Board's $53.3 million request. But Thomas and her finance director, Carol Edmonds, supplied the supervisors with a 2-inch-thick document that provides the nitty-gritty details of her proposed spending for county government, the Sheriff's Office, libraries, health and welfare programs and other nonschool spending.
Edmonds will brief the board on that $18.5 million portion of the budget in a work session at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the county courthouse. The board will hold a second work session Feb. 23 at 6:30 p.m.
The $18.5 million proposal includes $647,500 in new spending for several initiatives, including new radios for the Sheriff's Office; new vehicles for animal control, sheriff's deputies and other departments; raises for county employees; and the replacement of outmoded computer equipment in several county departments.
After a series of work sessions, the supervisors will adopt a proposed tax rate next month and advertise it for a March 21 public hearing before actually setting the tax rate by April 12.
LENGTH: Medium: 66 linesby CNB