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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 27, 1992                   TAG: 9203270399
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUNTY BUDGET CALLED `OPTIMISTIC'

The Roanoke County School Board adopted an "optimistic" budget Thursday that would give employees a 3.5 percent pay raise and decrease employees' share of health insurance costs.

The $72 million budget grew by 5.4 percent over last year.

But Superintendent Bayes Wilson considered the budget an optimistic one because it relies on about $300,000 that has not yet been assured. That money would come from revenues on a 10-cent per pack cigarette tax that still is awaiting Gov. Douglas Wilder's approval.

If that money falls through, employees would have to settle for a 3 percent raise.

The good news for employees is that, while health insurance costs rose, the amount of hospitalization insurance paid for by the School Board rose from 58 percent to 74 percent.

"I think that we can be pleased that we're as well off as we are with this budget," Wilson said.

Wilson followed that, however, by saying that "even though we feel pretty good about 3.5 percent, we will be the lowest in the [Roanoke] Valley."

Botetourt County will give employees a 5 percent raise and Salem is giving 4 percent. Roanoke's raise is 3 percent, but coupled with the "tier" raises many teachers will also get, it amounts to a larger raise than the county's, Wilson said.

Employee raises absorbed money that was being considered for replacing old roofs at some schools. This budget recommends spending $100,000 of the $568,000 in surplus money from last year's budget to replace some roofs. The rest of that surplus money would pay for new school buses and design plans for Cave Spring Junior High School renovations.

The budget includes little money for capital improvements to school buildings. Those renovations, which school officials have said are overdue, would be paid for later with about $8.5 million in loans from the state and a proposed bond referendum in November.

A workshop between the School Board and Board of Supervisors on such construction projects is scheduled for April 6. A public hearing on the county's 1992-1993 budget is scheduled for April 14 at 7 p.m. at the county Administration Building on Brambleton Avenue.

by CNB