Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990 TAG: 9003071826
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MARGARET CAMLIN NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The budget asks for $279,415 from the county, or 4.7 percent more than the school system will receive this year.
Increases for all employees would cost $870,668, including fringe benefits. Raises for teachers only - which are mandated by the state - would cost $648,133. The school system expects an increase of $46,402 in state assistance.
The 4.5 percent increase would raise Burns' salary to $83,077.
The School Board will consider the budget Thursday night and may suggest revisions.
"We almost expected it - that's the sad part," Diane Dixon, Pulaski County Education Association president, said of the 4.5 percent increase for teachers. "In order to get any raise, we had to get it from the state."
Dixon said she's pleased, however, that the board is considering other proposals made by the teachers' association, such as automatic deposit of paychecks and a sick leave "bank."
Burns wants to eliminate 20 teaching positions at Pulaski County High School to reduce expenditures by about $600,000. He met with the high school's teachers last Wednesday to explain in detail where and why the reductions in staff would be made.
Dixon said rumors were flying at the high school about the terminations, so the principal asked Burns to meet with the teachers.
She and others in the 280-member education association are developing a retirement incentive plan so that there will be few - if any - people actually losing their jobs, she said. "Hopefully it won't be as traumatic as it's been perceived up to this point," she said.
At a board meeting two weeks ago, Burns said "the essential budget problem" is the loss of 1,541 students over seven years while only six teaching positions have been cut. "Our problem is enrollment loss and we have to come to grips with it."
The proposed budget includes money for an intervention therapist to work with the 50-plus emotionally disturbed teen-agers at the high school.
There are only two specialized teachers for the emotionally disturbed at the school. "We don't have adequate services in my opinion," he said at the recent board meeting. "That's one of the major image problems at the high school. I'm not criticizing teachers; I'm criticizing staffing. I think it's an area we need to be open and honest about."
There also is money in the budget for an exceptional-education bus and a speech and hearing teacher. Two assistant principal positions have been eliminated at Claremont and Riverlawn elementary schools to help pay for the bus and new staff.
"The request for $279,415 in additional funds from the Board of Supervisors is a conservative request in that all expenditure levels except salary increases have been held level and 20 teacher and two administrator positions have been eliminated," Burns' proposal says.
The budget does not include money for computer-assisted instruction. Burns believes there will be enough money left over in the current year's budget to purchase 64 terminal systems for the high school's math and English departments.
The unspent balance could be anywhere between $150,000 and $450,000, according to John Johnston, supervisor of budget and finance.
It may be possible to "shift priorities in dropout and other special funds" to purchase a trial computer-assisted instruction system at Riverlawn Elementary, Burns indicated on the School Board agenda for Thursday.
by CNB