Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 9, 1991 TAG: 9103090402
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That was her reaction Friday, a day after she and other board members approved a hacked-up school budget in a meeting room with little hubbub and few attendees.
"Problem students grow up to be problem adults," Seif said. And the cuts made to the budget leave gaps in the city's education system that will create more problem students, she added.
The $64.2 million budget - smaller by $300,000 than this year's, which is a first - includes cuts to teacher positions, pay raises, summer school classes, adult education and other programs.
Board members blamed mostly the state for not giving them enough money to fund all they had hoped. But now they have turned to City Council to bail them out.
The School Board hopes to dip $1.6 million from the council's well and has requested that much in the form of a supplemental budget.
But that well is dry, council members say.
"There is no money," Councilman William White said Friday.
City schools will be left next year with no choice but to do the best they can with less money than they got this year, White said.
School Board member Thomas Orr said it's not that simple - especially since losing ground now means it'll take years to catch up.
"I feel like we are taking a step backward and I just don't know what it's going to do to the long run," he said. "I'd like to think council will help. On the other hand, I don't think we're going to get the whole $1.6 million."
That $1.6 million would restore some of the programs that were cut as well as pay raises.
Council begins discussing its own budget next month and will approve that and the school budget in May. Early signs for funding the supplemental budget, though, are bad.
"It's very simple," Councilman Howard Musser said. "We'll do very good to be able to hold the line on what we promised them a couple months ago. There will be no extra. . . . I can practically guarantee that."
Musser said the city will be lucky to break even, though he promised he wouldn't support a tax increase to tip the scales the other way.
"This is not our doing; this is the state's doing," he said. "If there's any bad guys involved in this, it's the state and not us."
Richard Poindexter, president of the Roanoke Education Association, said misplaced priorities also are partly to blame.
Teachers had been promised a 10 percent pay raise last school year. They got only 4.3 percent. This year, they'll get nothing.
"After last year, we thought we could have at least gotten cost of living [increases] or something," he said. "I have a real problem with that. . . . It certainly makes teachers burn out a lot faster."
Overall, many people's reaction to the school budget has been muted. Similarly, budget discussions in recent months have attracted little attention and few complaints from parents and teachers.
Central Council PTA President Pat Witten thinks it's because most people realize money is scarce and have accepted that.
"I really haven't heard too many rumblings from parents," she said. "We do not like the losses, the cuts. But we realize it's a tough year across the board. We realize there's not a whole lot of money available. You kind of have to be realistic about it."
by CNB