Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 13, 1993 TAG: 9301130247
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
NEW SCHOOL'S FUNDING POSSIBLE
A tight school budget may not threaten the construction of a new elementary school in Blacksburg after all.The Montgomery County School Board has been laboring to prepare a budget for the 1993-94 school year under instructions from the Board of Supervisors to spend no more than the $41.3 million budgeted for this year.
At a budget planning meeting Thursday, the School Board members said the county couldn't build a proposed elementary school in Blacksburg and hold funding to last year's levels.
At a meeting Tuesday night, however, School Board Chairman Roy Vickers said Supervisors Chairman Ira Long had told him that Long thought the supervisors intended to provide the money to pay the debt on the new school.
One problem facing School Board members is that they have never clearly understood what the supervisors meant in December when the board told them to write a new budget without an increase in spending.
The impact of not increasing the school budget at all next year was demonstrated Tuesday night by Superintendent Harold Dodge, who laid out scenarios for the School Board.
Some new costs are going to be impossible to avoid, despite the supervisors' directive, Dodge explained. New federal and state regulations and requirements for new teachers because of increased enrollment are going to increase costs by $1.05 milion, he said.
Without a funding increase from the supervisors, the School Board would have to cut its budget by $1.05 million to make it balance. In terms of personnel, the board would have to eliminate 26 teaching positions, Dodge said.
To maintain the current level of services - taking 4.2 percent inflation into account and paying debt service of $439,173 for the new school - the School Board would need a budget of nearly $44 million next year, Dodge said. That's an increase of $2.7 million over the current year's budget.
The current portion of the school budget paid by the county is $18.9 million.
Board member Don Lacy suggested that some money needed for new special-education teachers might be saved by re-evaluating the county's inclusion policy for special-ed students. Under that policy, special-ed students are moved into regular classrooms wherever possible.
But board member Annette Perkins said discussion of doing away with inclusion "bothers me tremendously. We're taking about what's best for children."
The School Board will continue its budget deliberations at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the board office on Junkin Street in Christiansburg.