MERGING 2 ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENTS URGED

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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 7, 1993                   TAG: 9304070153
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS NEW RIVER VALLEY BUREAU
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                LENGTH: Medium
MERGING 2 ADMINISTRATIVE DEPARTMENTS URGED
The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors should talk with the School Board right away about the possible merger of the school system's finance and purchasing departments with the county's, a supervisor says.
The chairman of the School Board agrees.
Supervisor Larry Linkous of Blacksburg said a decision about the merger of the departments should be made soon so school system employees are not left in the dark any longer than necessary.
Linkous said, though, that it was not the supervisors' intention for school employees to lose their jobs in the merger. Savings from the merger would come through the retirement and departure of employees over time, he said.
Also because of employee concerns, School Board Chairman Roy Vickers said his board would ask that a joint meeting be held soon with the supervisors to discuss a possible consolidation of the departments.
The finance and purchasing department employees, as do all school system employees, work on a yearly contract, Vickers said. Because of the uncertainty affecting their future, plans to issue the contracts for next year on April 15 have been placed on hold.
The School Board can't offer the employees contracts now because it doesn't know if it will have the money to pay them. The supervisors took the money for the two departments - $470,000, a figure that includes computer supplies and equipment - out of the school budget last week and placed it in a contingency fund until the consolidation issue is settled.
The uncertainty about the merger also has concerned School Superintendent Harold Dodge. In a memo to School Board Vice Chairman Bob Goncz last Friday, Dodge said that the affected employees are "worried to death about their future."
The county's Radford accounting firm suggested in a letter accompanying last year's county audit that the county could improve efficiency by merging county and school system operations.
Another reason the consolidation appeals to the supervisors is that it would make it easier to obtain information on the financial operation of the schools, Linkous said.
Supervisors' Chairman Ira Long said he believes the school system hasn't always provided the financial information the supervisors have asked for.
In this regard, he was in some disagreement with Linkous, who said the school system had been responsive this year to the supervisors' questions.
Similar mergers of financial and purchasing operations have worked well in other localities where they have occurred, such as Roanoke County, Long said.
Other counties have taken the step with the agreement of their School Boards and his board doesn't want to move forward without talking to the School Board, Long said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB