Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 22, 1990 TAG: 9004220088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICIA LOPEZ BADEN EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: MONTEREY LENGTH: Long
Nearly everyone in this county knows everyone else and the county's 400 children all go to one of just two schools, making Highland County schools the smallest school district in the state.
Most of the parents are ranchers; quiet, hard working, slow to anger.
That is unless you ask them to go into debt.
Then, as the state Department of Education is finding out, it's war.
Earlier this year, the state told county officials that they were $100,000 short on their local school spending effort.
In standard bureaucratic fashion, state officials told county officials to pay up or face going to court.
But what happened then was far from standard.
Instead of capitulating, tiny Highland County is refusing to pay.
"I never thought we'd be taking on the state of Virginia," county Supervisor Austin Shepherd said, chuckling. "But we're not going to back down."
Shepherd says he doesn't like to think about the possibility of being taken to court, because "heck, that's going to cost a lot of money, too."
But, he said, county residents are behind the supervisors 100 percent.
"Our constituents are saying `don't pay it.' " he said. "I've got people coming up to me on the street, saying, `Stand your ground.' "
Shepherd says that to raise the money the state wants, Highland County would have to raise property taxes from 60 to 67 cents.
Shepherd concedes that to city people, even a 67-cent tax rate sounds rock bottom. And for the average homeowner with a quarter to half-acre lot, it is.
But in Highland County, the average home sits on a spread of 375 acres or more. A 7-cent rate increase works out to an extra $260 for most ranchers.
Or, as Shepherd puts it, about $35 for every man, woman and child in Highland County, just to pay off the $100,000.
"You're talking about people selling off land to pay the tax bill," he said. "I won't do it to 'em."
As far as Highland School Superintendent T.C. Dickerson can figure, the problem started when an extra two dozen children transferred into Highland schools.
In most school districts, new students are like manna from heaven, because the state gives districts more money for every student they have.
Of course, the districts have to chip in, too, and because of a peculiarity in the state funding formula, Highland County puts in 60 cents for every 40 cents the state gives.
That's how Highland County got two dozen new students but still wound up in the hole.
State education officials say that the county also underestimated the amount needed for a teacher salary incentive it was supposed to provide, which contributed to the underfunding.
M.E. Cale, the state's associate superintendent for finance and support services, said it will be several months before the state knows precisely how much the county owes.
"Actually, the amount will probably be less than $100,000," he said. "We first need to determine exactly how many new students they have."
Cale said that should Highland refuse to pay the money, the state can either deduct the amount from next year's appropriation or pass the matter along to the attorney general.
The attorney general could then seek a writ of mandamus, in which the court would order Highland to pay or risk being found in contempt.
Dickerson said that when he first got the warning from the state, "you couldn't print my reaction in the newspaper. I was flabbergasted."
Of the new students, he said, "I don't know where they came from. That was a total surprise for everyone. They must have just come in twos and threes. It's not like all of a sudden we were short a teacher, or had overcrowded classrooms, or not enough books. We were getting by."
When Dickerson sent the state's warning on to the county Board of Supervisors, he got another surprise.
By unanimous decision the board voted to send a resolution to the state declaring the Virginia school funding formula "unfair and possibly unconstitutional" and telling state officials that they would not appropriate any more money - mandate or no mandate.
Neither side at this point seems willing to budge.
As Highland High School Principal Steven McDaniel said of the coming showdown: "I wouldn't want a dog in that fight."
McDaniel, along with Shepherd and others, says the state funding formula penalizes areas like Highland County, where property values are high, but incomes are low.
"People here are land-poor," McDaniel said. "A lot of them have land only because it's been in their family for years. That doesn't make them rich.
"The problem is, you don't get wealthy from the land you own, only from the land you sell."
And selling is anathema to most Highlanders, McDaniel said.
"The land is their lifeblood," he said. "That's why they're here - not because they're getting fabulously wealthy off ranching.
"We've got lots of families getting by on not a lot of money," he said, "but in this whole school I've only got 22 students on free lunch. Even when they qualify they don't apply, because to them, it's like a handout."
Shepherd says Highland County in recent years has become a favorite investment spot for wealthy Northern Virginians and others looking for a retirement home or recreational getaway.
He notes that the sparsely populated county now has 917 resident landowners - and 925 non-resident landowners.
That has boosted land values, which in turn, has - in the eyes of the state - boosted the county's ability to pay.
To qualify for state money, all school districts in Virginia are rated according to their "ability to pay," based mostly on real estate and corporate land values.
Statistics show that Highland County's adjusted gross per capita income for 1987 was $20,690 - one third below the state average of $33,000. But because of its increased land values, Highland County now ranks 14th in ability to pay - higher than far wealthier communities such as Henrico and Faquier counties, Virginia Beach, Roanoke, Charlottesville and just one step below Fairfax.
For that reason, the state contributes just 40 cents for every 60 cents that Highland County spends to educate its children.
By contrast, Roanoke County, with an adjusted gross income of $35,000, pays 45 cents for every 55 cents the state pays.
"What a joke," Shepherd said of the ranking. "Our adjusted gross income is the fifth lowest in the state. Right down there with Grayson and Lee counties."
Shepherd knows there are those who are amused at the idea of a county going to court over spending an extra $100,000.
But for a county with an overall budget of $3 million - two-thirds of which already goes to schools - an extra $100,000 can mean financial catastrophe.
"We're frugal people," he said. "We don't have that money in our budget, and if we were to pay it off right away, we'd have to borrow, and that's just not our way."
The schools themselves are living examples of that.
While bonds to renovate schools have become routine in most districts, Highland owns its schools free and clear.
"We don't owe one penny on either school," Dickerson said. "And that's the way folks around here like it."
by CNB