Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 4, 1990 TAG: 9007040110
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV12 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
"There was a bookkeeping error that was made," he told the board at the annual reorganizational meeting.
The error was a big one, amounting to nearly $183,000 in 1989-90 funds.
According to Johnston, certain employee benefit deductions were overpaid at the end of the last fiscal year, apparently because of a computer programming mistake.
The School Board voted unanimously to request a $182,969 reappropriation from the Pulaski County Board of Supervisors to fund four budget items, including $79,210 for insurance, $22,158 to replace carpets in four schools, $48,000 for computers, and $33,600 for handicapped facilities.
"Do they know we made an error?" board member Anne Neighbors asked Johnston.
"Their bookkeepers know," he replied.
Also at the brief meeting, the School Board voted 4-2 to keep Irene Kegley as its chairwoman. The only other nominee for the post of chairman, Vice Chairman Ron Chaffin, was unanimously re-elected to his post.
Kegley and Chaffin voted for each other in the open balloting.
The board also eliminated future 11-month contracts for school principals, voting unanimously to extend only 12-month agreements starting next year. Although this year's contracts already have been signed, the board said the handful of administrators with 11-month pacts could opt to switch to a 12-month agreement now.
Of the nine elementary school principals, only three have 11-month contracts, which provide for 215 total working days and up to six weeks off during the summer. The 12-month agreements include 250 total working days, but include holidays and up to 18 vacation days. All of the 11-month administrators are at small elementary schools.
"This is not equitable," said Personnel Director Doris Dawson, who urged the board to make the change.
"We don't want to just give a 12-month contract without giving them something to do," she said. "Right now, we could offer an option and use them this summer at the central office."
"From the end of June to the second week of August, there is no one in the school," acting superintendent Phyllis Bishop said of the schools with 11-month contract principals.
She said one 11-month principal had asked to go to a 12-month contract.
The board approved a tentative summer work program for all principals and proposed additional duties for small-school administrators who have a lighter overall workload.
by CNB