Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 27, 1991 TAG: 9102270400
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The questions, which have been forwarded to School Board members in advance of a joint meeting between the two boards Saturday, have created fear that the supervisors may be seeking further cuts in the school budget.
"We need to be quite well prepared," said member Don Lacy of Blacksburg at Tuesday night's School Board meeting. "I'm not going to support another dime of cuts. . . . I don't think we can go any lower."
The School Board has sent the supervisors a $38.95 million budget for 1991-92, which is more than $400,000 below the current year's budget. The board has cut more than $2 million from what the school administration said was needed in the coming year.
County Administrator Betty Thomas suggested in a memorandum that the School Board be asked about the consequences of delaying proposed new positions in the school system for one year, which could save $217,000.
Those positions include three elementary art teachers, a new assistant principal at Margaret Beeks Elementary School, a secretary for the new Christiansburg elementary school and 11 instructional aides, who are to be hired to provide elementary teachers with a duty-free lunch period.
Thomas' memo raised other questions about money the School Board has budgeted for training, travel, early retirement and administrative costs. Compared with 12 other counties in Virginia roughly the same size, Montgomery County has the highest percentage of administrative costs at 2.3 percent, not counting fringe benefits, the memo said.
Both School Board Chairman Marty Childress of Shawsville and Vice Chairman Robert Goncz of Christiansburg said they did not feel the questions were an attack on the school budget.
Childress said he believes the supervisors just want more information about the items and whether they can be cut without damaging the quality of education.
"My own personal feeling is, we're not cutting anything," said Goncz.
Childress pointed out that the supervisors cannot cut specific items from the school budget, only the overall appropriation or funds for individual budget categories.
by CNB