SCHOOL MONEY HUNT BEGINS

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 12, 1992                   TAG: 9202120330
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By NEAL THOMPSON
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
SCHOOL MONEY HUNT BEGINS
Time has stood still for Roanoke schools this year, but the proposed budget released Tuesday signifies an end to the time warp.
The 1992-93 budget draft is a 5.2 percent increase - or $3.3 million - over last year. It could restore many programs that were cut or postponed last year when the state reneged on $1.4 million it had promised Roanoke.
This year, the budget will get city schools "back on track," Richard Kelley, assistant superintendent for business, said Tuesday.
The only problem will be in funding all the backlogged programs, which would cost $8.8 million. But city schools stand to get only $3.3 million, according to preliminary federal state and local school funding estimates.
The School Board must now decide which programs to fund. A public hearing for citizen input on those decisions is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Feb. 25 at Madison Middle School. The board will adopt its budget March 10.
Board members have said employee raises are the top priority. To pay for 3 percent raises for all school employees - the same size raise city employees are expected to get - would cost $1.35 million of the $3.3 million.
But Roanoke teachers are asking for at least a 7 percent raise to "give us a chance to rebuild our shattered finances," Roanoke Education Association President Dorothy Cooper told the board Tuesday night.
"This is the year to concentrate money on people instead of programs," Cooper said. "Anything else would be unconscionable."
Besides teacher raises, other priorities the board must sift through include:

$186,500 to pay for three resource officers at both city high schools.

$102,500 to continue the recently completed all-day kindergarten program.

$94,700 to expand the alternative education program so it can educate more students with discipline problems.

$158,000 to reduce kindergarten-through-second grade class sizes, now nearing 30 at some schools.

$894,700 to restore some of the programs that were cut last year to save money.

$1 million to restore the seven-period high school day, which was cut last year.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB