Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 13, 1991 TAG: 9102130440
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS/ NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Dodge said the School Board had stepped outside of its role of providing for the needs of the county's schoolchildren and has prepared a budget that takes into account the tight financial times.
The result is a budget that is less than what the board feels is needed for the schools to operate at their best.
"We've got it turned down about as far as we can . . .," Dodge said. "The next round [of cuts] and we're laying people off . . . we're cutting programs."
The supervisors took their first look at the proposal Tuesday night in a joint meeting with the School Board.
The school budget contains a request for either $198,169 or $596,794 in new local funding, depending on a disputed $398,125 debt service payment for a new elementary school in Christiansburg.
Dodge and other school officials said the new debt payment should not be included in the school operating budget. If the School Board had added in the new debt, it would have had to cut teachers' jobs and educational programs, officials said.
The proposed $38.95 million budget is $800,421 less than the adjusted budget for the current year, Dodge said. The proposal is $3.05 million less than what the school system felt it really needed.
Costs have been increasing as state aid has been falling, Dodge said. He said that if residents don't think events in the Middle East affect Montgomery County, they should drive a million miles a year as the school system does.
Montgomery County lost $1.2 million in state educational support, but still managed to cut $500,000 from the current budget and will send $275,000 back to the supervisors in July at the end of the budget year, Dodge said.
Features of the proposed budget include: a freeze on all salaries with the exception of a 2 percent raise for cafeteria workers; cuts in 27 new teacher and teacher-support jobs requested for next year; and a 60 percent cut in money for staff training.
The budget manages to maintain educational programs and provides for the purchase of four new diesel school buses. Eight supervisory jobs will be eliminated, Dodge said.
The superintendent seemed stung by County Administrator Betty Thomas' report at last Thursday's supervisors meeting that the local support for schools had grown by 93.6 percent since the 1985 budget year. The bulk of the increase was the result of hiring 47 new teachers to cope with growth and of giving teachers raises required by the state, Dodge said.
As the School Board increased salaries, it was cutting other school expenditures to compensate, Dodge said. Otherwise, the local funding increase would have been 180 percent, he said.
It seems that whenever the financial news is bad, "we don't want to go out and face the needs of children," Dodge said.
The first thing that's cut is social services, welfare and children's needs, he said. "I don't think it speaks real highly of the community."
The proposed budget will require $18.2 million in local funds, not including the disputed debt service money. The supervisors' reaction to the school budget message was muted.
Supervisor James Moore of Blacksburg said he was "delighted the members of the [School] Board are standing up for the needs of our future."
Supervisor Ann Hess of Christiansburg asked for an explanation of $60,000 set aside in the proposed budget for early retirement for teachers. If the state legislature approves an early retirement plan offered by the governor, the money would be used to fund the potential benefits for 32 eligible teachers, she was told.
by CNB