Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 14, 1991 TAG: 9103140310
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It wasn't as bad as a year ago, when the supervisors were furious after finding out the School Board had gone $500,000 in the red by establishing a dropout-prevention program it did not have funding for. That dispute led to the merging of the school system's finance department with the county's.
But the supervisors - who had learned earlier Tuesday that the $3 million in new local revenue that is expected next year would be offset by the countywide loss of $2.8 million in state funds - challenged school administrators on at least four issues:
They balked at approving the School Board's plans to spend $342,000 in interest income from the investment of $2.5 million in bond money. The bond money, which was put in the bank and withdrawn as needed to pay construction bills, was spent on renovations at Bent Mountain and Back Creek elementary schools.
The School Board wanted to use the interest income to complete those two projects, improve parking at Cave Spring Junior High School, and repair roofs on school buildings.
The supervisors first voted to delay action on the School Board's plans. At the end of the meeting, they approved the plans.
Supervisor Bob Johnson accused school administrators of letting the state Department of Transportation get the better of them in bargaining over Cave Spring Junior High School property that was taken for the widening of U.S. 221. School administrators disputed that.
Supervisor Harry Nickens told the School Board that he expected the 1991-1992 school budget to include no money for pay raises, no money for new employees and no money for new programs. And he told the School Board that "the money is just not there" to pay for $14.7 million in capital improvement projects scheduled for the next five years.
And Chairman Steve McGraw repeatedly asked school administrators why they had not complied with the supervisors' January request for a report on enrollment and attendance zones.
McGraw wants to know whether attendance zones can be changed to take the pressure off overcrowded schools. But school administrators say it would not be feasible to, for example, bus students from Cave Spring to Glenvar High School - the only county high school that isn't at capacity.
"It was confrontational, no doubt about it," McGraw said Wednesday. "They anger me sometimes. They always avoid the things I ask them for because they're afraid of change. And we might have to make some changes this year."
"Feelings have a way of erupting" when money is short, School Board Chairman Frank Thomas said.
And how short is the money? "We've never, never had a year when we received less state funds" than the year before, school Superintendent Bayes Wilson said.
And it is the first time in Wilson's 35 years with the county school system that there has not been enough money for pay raises, he said.
It has been the Board of Supervisors' intention all along to make up the loss in state funding for the school system. The problem is, Wilson and County Administrator Elmer Hodge do not agree on how much the loss is.
Wilson points to a Feb. 27 memo from the state Department of Education that puts the county's loss at more than $1.9 million.
But Hodge told the Board of Supervisors the loss would be $1.6 million, and that is all he's planning for the county to make up. "At the present time, that's the best the county can do," he said Wednesday.
The reason for the disparity: The school system will get extra state money, partly because of an increase in enrollment. Hodge is subtracting that from the $1.9 million cited in the Feb. 27 memo.
But Wilson said Wednesday that the extra state money already had been included in the preliminary 1991-92 school budget to pay for two additional personal-leave days for teachers, instructional supplies and an increase in health insurance premiums.
So the county and the School Board remain about $300,000 apart. And when it meets tonight, the School Board is likely to start looking for ways to trim its budget even further.
"In the end . . . the School Board budget will balance," McGraw said.
Despite the criticisms voiced Tuesday, "we have an excellent working relationship with the School Board," McGraw said.
"Their mission is to do everything they can for schoolchildren. But they don't have taxing authority. They don't have to answer to the people. They are a little bit too removed from the process to understand how bad the problem is."
Thomas, though, said the School Board "is very understanding of the situation the Board of Supervisors finds itself in. They are very supportive of education - although sometimes it doesn't look that way."
by CNB