Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 28, 1992 TAG: 9203280071
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RICK LINDQUIST CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
The board instead voted unanimously Thursday to cut part of a $200,000 equipment allocation and to put off several non-routine maintenance items totaling more than $16,100.
"I'm tickled to death we're only dealing with $178,000 this year," board member George Ducker said. Last year, the board froze salaries after failing to get $407,000 in additional money from the city.
Superintendent Michael Wright has estimated that the raises, adjustments to the salary scale and increased health insurance costs would total just over $344,300.
Wright said school funds for the year will include $3.65 million from City Council and $3.66 million from state, federal and other sources.
The city's appropriation is $169,000 more than last year, but $133,000 less than the board requested. State, federal and other funds are up about $101,000 from this year, he said.
Wright said several developments since the $7.5 million 1992-93 budget went to City Council in January helped throw the spending plan out of whack. Among them was a possibility that the division would have to pay $86,973 next year for tuition and residential care for a special-education student who moved to the city in February.
Some board members expressed surprise at the figure, but Wright said the state would pay about two-thirds of the cost. He said the youngster required full-time institutional care.
Also, the board accepted a lower-than-expected bid to replace the Belle Heth Elementary roof. The original estimate was $112,000. Wright said the job, including some $15,000 already spent, would about $91,000. City Council recently reappropriated $156,825 in unspent funds from last year's school budget to fix the roof and buy computers.
Board Chairman John McPhail said the board should "take a gamble" on having money left over at the end of this school year. He said the money could be requested later for new equipment.
After lively debate, board member Carter Effler withdrew his suggestion to let students who are absent due to suspension or truancy make up missed school work. Instead, the board agreed to re-examine its entire suspension policy. Suspended students receive zeros for any missed work, which can affect a report card profoundly.
"I fail to see where the sanction is in a suspension," said board member Chip Craig, who led opposition to the change. "They become days of vacation if the work can be made up."
"I agree," said board member Betty Plott. "It's five days they can spend doing anything they want to do." She said students will "think twice" if they have no chance of making up work.
Effler argued that in some cases suspension was tantamount to "kicking them out of school."
Wright said 64 of about 700 intermediate- and high-school students had been suspended this year, about two-thirds of them for tobacco use, skipping school or failing to show up for penalty hall. Effler said some students have been suspended more than four times this year; there have been 150 suspension days in all.
"I still have not heard one person here tell me what would be punitive about a suspension where you could make the work up," Craig said. "The student that I would hope this would affect most would be the good student, the one who would not want to transgress the rules."
Effler was unmoved. "I think we need to start looking at an alternative route for some of the students that have more than four suspensions," he said. "Just to keep suspending students and giving them zeros doesn't do them any good."
Craig agreed. "Maybe we need to look what punishments we place on what actions."
Radford High Principal Buddy Martin said, "I could live with some modification of makeup, but if we're going to redo any rules, I think we ought to look at all of them." After Effler withdrew his motion, McPhail said the board would seek comments from principals and discuss the suspension policy at its first May meeting.
by CNB