Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 9, 1990 TAG: 9003092224
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: PUL LENGTH: Medium
"This is not a pleasant thing," said Superintendent James Burns, who had urged the reductions-in-force. "This is a budget reduction plan, not necessarily a riffing plan."
Burns said a 25 percent drop in enrollment over the past five years, from 2,400 to 1,812 students, made the faculty cutbacks necessary. He defended the recommendation as "even-handed" and has estimated it would save about $600,000.
The board also voted to send Burns' $22 million 1990-91 budget to the Board of Supervisors, which could urge further cuts.
"If we have to go further, I don't think it will be at the high school," Burns said. "If the Board of Supervisors doesn't allocate the extra $270,000 we've asked for, we will have to go deeper."
"We can't manufacture money," said board Chairwoman Irene Kegley before voting on the teacher cuts.
Pulaski County High School has 146 faculty members. Burns estimated that 10 of the 20 positions could be eliminated through attrition.
Half the positions being cut will come out of the vocational educational department, which received strong support from several speakers during a lengthy, occasionally emotional, debate Thursday night.
"I wonder if we're not placing too much emphasis on the talented and gifted [students]," said Linda Caudell, head of the Pulaski County Advisory Council for Vocational Education and wife of a vocational-education teacher.
"PCHS needs these programs and these teachers," said Chad Davis, a high school senior and this year's state president of the Vocational Industrial Clubs of America. "I believe in vocational education. It has made a difference in my life," he told the board.
Grocery store manager Frank Bibb, who employs cooperative education students at his business, said he thinks the staffing levels now may not be adequate.
The cutbacks also will mean the end of electronics courses.
"A high school the size of Pulaski County needs to be in the forefront of electronics technology," said Snowville Elementary School Principal Judy Barr, whose husband teaches electronics at the high school.
"It hurts to make cuts," said Board member Tommy Thompson. "But now we've got to bite the bullet."
Thompson moved to recommend the budget "with regrets, but we have no choice."
"It's a tough decision," said board member Ron Chaffin, a former vocational teacher. "This is a time I wish I were out there with you," he told the audience.
Chaffin conceded the board should have been making more cuts over the years to stay in step with enrollment losses. "I'm sorry we didn't do it earlier," he said.
Burns predicted that the board would have to face the RIF issue again within two years as enrollments decline further. "There will be less need for teachers when there are 200 less students [at the high school]," he said before the vote.
He said 200 students would translate into about 10 more teaching positions.
In other business, the board approved a recommendation to exempt high school seniors from final exams in classes in which they have maintained a `B' average.
Following pleas in support of the exemption, the measure failed on a 3-3 tie the first time around. But after a motion for reconsideration and second round of public comment, the recommendation passed 5-1.
by CNB