Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 28, 1993 TAG: 9304280378
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
The Board of Supervisors decided to release $117,671 for salaries Monday night while they talk with the School Board about consolidating the financial departments of the school system and the county.
The money is part of $470,686 that the supervisors withheld from the School Board's 1993-94 budget in anticipation of a consolidation. It has become clear, however, that a consolidation won't take place before the start of the fiscal year.
The reasons the supervisors are considering consolidation include: having better access to information about school finances, saving money through larger bulk purchases and providing an independent oversight to school purchases before they are made.
School Board members worry that the proposal is a veiled attempt by the supervisors to gain control over educational policy by controlling purchases.
They also complain that they were not included in the supervisors' plans from the start and have been unable to assure the affected employees about their future.
In a contentious joint meeting a week ago, School Board members refused to go behind closed doors with the supervisors to discuss the consolidation because they believed such a discussion would be illegal if the public were excluded.
Since then, Supervisors Chairman Ira Long and School Board Chairman Roy Vickers have met and agreed that the two boards need "continuing conversation" before a decision is reached on consolidation.
He and Vickers also agreed, Long said, that the new school superintendent, Herman Bartlett, who takes office July 1, needs to be included in the discussions.
At last week's meeting, the supervisors gave the School Board a report prepared by Jeff Lunsford, the county's director of fiscal management, on anticipated benefits of consolidation.
The county could save $237,000 over the next five years by letting the school system's purchasing agent take over the duties of the county's agent, who has retired, and by eliminating another job through attrition, Lunsford said.
Consolidation is not a new idea.
Roanoke and Henrico counties have consolidated their schools and general government accounting departments. Tiny Scott County in far Southwest Virginia has been consolidated for 20 years, Lunsford said.
The goal is to create a centralized system through which the county's financial condition can be monitored day-to-day, Lunsford said.
The school administration has been busy this week analyzing Lunsford's report for the School Board, an effort expected to be completed by Thursday.
Assistant Superintendent John Martin said some of the assumptions in Lunsford's report may not be correct.
For one thing, Lunsford has said an independent prior review of purchases would be a benefit of consolidation, but Martin said the school system already has a system of prior review.
School Board members said Lunsford's report was the first official word they had received about the proposed consolidation. The first they heard about it was in newspaper accounts last May, when the supervisors passed a resolution directing County Administrator Betty Thomas to study the matter.
Information about consolidation has been scarce, but Vickers said he and Long have discussed it informally on occasion.
Vickers and other School Board members, as well as some supervisors, believe that better communication between the two boards is needed if consolidation is going to work. The poor relationship between the boards during budget discussions over the past two years has made communication difficult.
Bartlett, the incoming superintendent, agreed that both the School Board and supervisors need to be comfortable with the idea for it to succeed.
Bartlett, however, reserved any opinions on the proposal until he has had time to study it.
School Board Member Don Lacy said a committee needs to be set up between the School Board and supervisors to exchange information on the proposal.
Lunsford's report, he said, is just a generalization about benefits without any documentary evidence.
County Supervisor Jim Moore agreed that cooperation is necessary if consolidation is going to work. "I've seen good ideas go down the tubes because people who have to implement them decide they're not going to work," he said.
Moore said the decision to have Lunsford, the county staff member with the most to gain from consolidation, do the preliminary study was not well thought out, nor was the decision not to involve the School Board earlier in the planning.
Supervisor Joe Gorman said the School Board and administration have been involved in the proposal from the start, but Martin, the assistant superintendent, said the school system's involvement has been limited to responding to questions from Lunsford.
The supervisors have no interest in micro-managing the school system, Gorman said.
Supervisor Larry Linkous said the supervisors have really just now started planning for consolidation. After the board instructed Thomas to study the matter last year, it became distracted with other issues, he said.
But board members thought that now would be a good time to focus on consolidation with the change in school superintendents, the retirement of the county's purchasing agent and the beginning of a new fiscal year.
by CNB