Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 23, 1992 TAG: 9201230288
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-7 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
BOARD FACES TOUGH BUDGETING DECISIONS
Montgomery County School Board members wrestled with their consciences as they wrangled over next year's school budget Tuesday night.Should they go ahead with the budget full of hefty spending increases they laid out last week? Or should they consider the tough economic times and trim the wish list they'll send to the Board of Supervisors next month.
In the end, the School Board voted 8-1 for a budget that it feels is needed to pay for a top-notch school system.
The budget calls for spending $52.3 million next school year, nearly $13 million more than this year.
Board members, however, voted with their eyes wide open to the fact that probably little or none of what they have asked for will be funded by the Board of Supervisors.
Reaction among the supervisors to the School Board's proposal has ranged from disbelief to dismay. And supervisors have said the School Board should have considered the weak economy when writing its budget.
Don Lacy, a board member from Blacksburg, argued that regardless of whether the supervisors go along with what the School Board wants, the board needs to get its plans before the public and the supervisors for discussion.
"We might as well put the agenda out on the table," he said.
In the past, the School Board has asked the supervisors for the minimum to get by and never asked for what's really needed, Lacy said.
Aside from a $4.9 million request for pay increases for school employees, the largest new item in the proposed budget is $3.04 million to put computers and software into each of the county's more than 700 classrooms.
Other major increases proposed are: $1 million for 24 new teachers, $720,000 for 15 new school buses and $370,000 to pay half the premium for health insurance for the families of school employees.
The budget would require an additional $11.5 million from county taxpayers. But based on current tax rates, the Board of Supervisors is expecting only an additional $550,000 in revenue next year.
The School Board will send its budget to the supervisors in early February. It will be incorporated with the rest of the county budget, which County Administrator Betty Thomas will present to the supervisors on Feb. 10.
Some School Board members were ready Tuesday night to succumb to the argument that times are too tough to be asking for so much.
Annette Perkins, a new board member from Blacksburg and a recently retired county teacher, argued that $4 million in new spending pushed by board members themselves - including money for the computer network and medical insurance - should be cut from the budget and some other form of funding sought.
Perkins was willing, however, to keep Superintendent Harold Dodge's proposals for an additional $8.5 million, including money for employee raises, in the budget.
Board Member Daniel Schneck of Christiansburg strongly disagreed with Perkins, who had been joined in her budget cutting proposal by Board Members Michael Sowder of Riner and Rebecca Raines of Lafayette.
The board needs to present its case to the public, he said. "If you want a first-class school system, this is what you need to have."
Lacy, defending the proposed computers, said, "We have to start some time putting this Montgomery County school system into the latter half of the 20th century."
The School Board started planning for computers in 1986 but the idea got dropped, Lacy said.
Perkins and other opponents agreed to compromise to send the supervisors a budget backed by a large board majority.
Chairman Robert Goncz of Christiansburg was the only board member to vote against the budget. Goncz said he had concerns about the computers and the new salary scale for teachers.
The budget would move teachers would onto a new salary scale and they would receive an average raise of 15.24 percent. Teachers and most other school employees did not get raises this year.
The proposed raises would increase the average annual salary to $31,556, but Montgomery teachers still would be almost $4,000 behind the current state average of $35,360.
Mike Reilly, chairman of the Montgomery County Education Association's salary committee, said he was impressed with the board's solidarity. "Our job now is to educate the county Board of Supervisors on the importance of education," he said.
If the Board of Supervisors refuses to go along with the School Board's proposed increases, it will still cost the school system roughly $1 million to keep up with inflation and provide services at the same level as this year, Dodge said.
It will cost another $560,000 to open up the new Falling Branch Elementary School in Christiansburg.