Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 2, 1993 TAG: 9303020253
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
PULASKI SCHOOLS STUNG BY STATE
The Pulaski County School Board thought it would have to report some bad news to the Board of Supervisors Monday night about funding the 1993-94 school year.The news, however, turned out to be even worse than anticipated. If it is reflected in other rural school divisions, it may make next year tougher than anyone anticipated.
Superintendent William Asbury had been prepared to tell the supervisors that the school system faced a $239,000 shortfall if it simply met state Standards of Quality and added no programs to the existing ones.
But the School Board received a fax from the state Department of Education earlier on Monday listing state funding for Pulaski County. The result was a shortfall of $464,145.
Funds for increased salaries and health insurance premiums could kick that up to a $700,000 to $800,000 shortfall, he said.
"What we had perceived as being a bad year got even worse," Asbury said. "We were sick about it . . . It's the worst budget year that I have ever seen."
One reason is that Pulaski County continues to lose student population, on which state funding is largely based. The totals have dropped from 7,739 in the 1979-80 school year to a projected 5,200 next year.
But Asbury said all the new initiatives the General Assembly introduced last year to address disparities between rich and poor school systems have been reduced for the coming year. A result is less state revenue when the school system faces rising costs.
The legislature is mandating a 3 percent raise in teachers' salaries under the Standards of Quality, which hurts Pulaski County because it is exceeding those standards. The state will only fund the number of teachers required for minimum standards, and not cover 148 of the county's 359 teachers.
But the county is not about to give raises to some teachers and not all. If it fails to give the 3 percent raises, it stands to lose even more state money and the shortfall would grow.
The legislature will likely claim credit for raising teachers' pay in Virginia by 3 percent, both boards agreed, but the burden of doing it will fall largely on the county in this case.
"Let's send it back to our legislators and ask how they think we should do it," Board of Supervisors Chairman Jerry White said. "I'm serious."
School officials agreed that the county has done its share in funding county schools.
If Pulaski County went by state requirements only, Asbury said, it could probably lower its budget by $3 million a year. But it would have only six class periods a day instead of seven, an aging bus fleet, 35 students in every class, no governor's school participants, no elementary art or music teachers and would lose much more.
"It's not like the county hasn't supported education. In fact, if it wasn't for you, we'd be in really bad shape," Asbury told the supervisors. "You just have to accept that we're going to have to dismantle what it's taken us years to build . . . It's when you know something is needed and you intentionally neglect it because you know you can't afford it."
The last-minute blocking - by state Sen. Hunter Andrews, D-Hampton, and others - of $20 million that would have addressed school-funding disparities shows why rural school districts must resort to a lawsuit, Asbury said.
The coalition of rural and inner-city schools lost in a Richmond judge's ruling last November that the state constitution does not require equal funding of school districts. The coalition is appealing the decision.
Supervisor Bruce Fariss asked if regional consolidation of facilities among different school systems might become an option in future years, "as radical as that sounds."
Pulaski County is already closing one elementary school at the end of this year. Asbury said he hates to consider closing others, "but with the shrinking enrollment and loss of state funds, we're being forced to look at it."