Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 16, 1991                   TAG: 9104160596
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOL BOARD WANTED MORE

Roanoke's School Board had hoped for an extra $1.6 million from council. That would have allowed the board to restore some programs it planned to cut to balance its budget.

"Every additional amount does help," said School Board Chairman James Turner.

"We like the extra money. It's better than having a decrease," said Richard Kelley, executive for business affairs. "We had hoped for a little more."

City Manager Robert Herbert presented City Council Monday with a budget that would fund a $64.3 million school budget - $127,626 more than the board requested, thanks to local tax revenues.

School Board members are still waiting to hear how much they will get back from the state. The General Assembly plans to restore some of the funds it cut earlier this year, and Roanoke, at last count, stands to get about $163,000.

The additional state and local money would likely be used to restore one of the following items that were cut: Expansion of full-day kindergarten to four additional schools, dropout-prevention programs, the Middle School Scholars program or seven-period high school days.

But it's not enough to restore pay raises to employees and teachers, which would cost $862,000.

"That's not enough money to do anything meaningful there [with pay raises]. So, we'd have to look at restoring some of the programs," Turner said.

Not restoring all of the programs, though, could hurt generations of Roanoke pupils - particularly the full-day kindergarten and seven-period high school day programs.

"I think we all have to rearrange our priorities," said Norman Michaels, assistant superintendent for instruction.

"We need to look down the road and say, `Hey, these people are going to have a significant impact on the first half of the 21st century and we have to prepare them,' " he said.

Full-day kindergarten gives pupils a jump on their next 12 grades, and a seven-period day allows high school students to take extra credits, he said.

But to bring full-day kindergarten to four new schools next year would cost $210,000 and seven-period days would cost $275,000.

Part of the problem is commensurate with the times, Michaels said. The economy is bad and revenue is down.

But Michaels blames priorities, not money.

"I've been in this business for decades and I've never had enough money," he said. "There's no real shortage of money, it's just a matter of priorities."

When the next generation of the work force is at stake, education has to be the top priority.

"It's one thing to cut your finger and put a Band-Aid on it . . . it's another to be shot in the heart," he said. And that's what is happening to school funding, he said. "It's going to be felt for a long, long time."