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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 27, 1993                   TAG: 9301270231
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Short

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MONTGOMERY SCHOOL BOARD PICKS BUDGET

The Montgomery County School Board voted 5-3 Tuesday night to recommend a $48.3 million school budget to the Board of Supervisors for the coming year.

After hearing comments at a public hearing, the board decided to increase its budget by $221,000 to accommodate a 4.5 percent salary increase for all school employees.

The $48.3 million figure will be presented to the supervisors as the preferred alternative of a three-tiered budget. The board calls the $48.3 million budget its "responsible" alternative.

Also presented as options will be a "educationally essential" budget of $44.4 million, and a "minimum" budget of $42.8 million.

The preferred budget is about 17 percent higher than the current $41.3 million budget.

The board responded to calls from several citizens at the public hearing to raise salaries of teachers and other school employees higher than an originally proposed 2 percent.

However, requests by citizens for increased funding for instructional programs such as special education, and for more instructors and counselors, went unheeded.

Several speakers criticized the board's plan to present the supervisors with a budget containing three options. Regina Smith, vice president of the county PTA, said she was "dismayed."

"The Board of Supervisors, to my knowledge, have never taken a higher number and said, `OK, go for it.' "

Glenda Thomas, parent of a student at Auburn High School, called the board's strategy "politically correct."

"Past experience [with the supervisors] tells me that our children will once again get the short end."

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