Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 17, 1991 TAG: 9104170437
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
School Board Chairman Marty Childress of Shawsville and Board Member Richard Zody of Blacksburg said at Tuesday night's School Board meeting that they will not seek reappointment to the board. Their terms expire June 30.
Board member Virginia Kennedy of Blacksburg said she is a candidate for reappointment. Appointments to the board are made by the Board of Supervisors. Childress has represented District C for four years and Zody the town of Blacksburg for four years. Kennedy has served District F for two four-year terms.
County Administrator Betty Thomas said Tuesday night two people have shown an interest in Childress' seat and one in Zody's. Thomas could not immediately identify those people. The county advertised earlier this year for candidates.
Today is the deadline set by the supervisors for candidates to get their names to Thomas. Supervisor Chairman Henry Jablonski said that sometimes that deadline is extended if not enough people apply, but generally the board sticks by it.
The School Board's meeting Tuesday night was cut short when the board decided it had not received enough information from the Board of Supervisors and from state government to make the necessary reductions in the coming school year's budget.
A dispute between Gov. Douglas Wilder and the state legislature has held up the state school appropriations. If the legislature prevails, the county could be getting $507,000 more for schools than it had expected, Assistant Superintendent Curtis Gray said.
However, the school system will not get the benefit of all that extra money if it comes. The Board of Supervisors plans to capture as much as $300,000 of any new state school money by reducing the local share of the school budget.
As it stands now, the School Board's budget for next year is $38.73 million, which includes $310,000 in cuts by the supervisors and another $300,000 taken out and put in the county's contingency fund in anticipation that the state will make it up. That compares with a revised budget for the current year of $40.17 million and represents a $1.4 million cut in school funding for next year.
However, Jablonski said the supervisors intend to see that the $300,000 contingency money is restored to the schools, if not from state funds, from local funds. Any extra money above $300,000 coming from the state probably would also go to the schools because it would be designated by the state for school use, he said.
Although the supervisors cannot tell the School Board how to spend its money, they made some of their cuts by second-guessing the School Board on particular budget items.
Rather than providing the supervisors with an itemized budget next year in which to look for cuts, School Board member Don Lacy suggested the School Board send the supervisors a one-page summary.
by CNB