Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 5, 1993 TAG: 9305050226
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Inability of the School Board to take final action is holding up the awarding of employment contracts to teachers and other school employees. The board tries to award the contracts in April, but didn't get last year's out until July.
Superintendent Harold Dodge said he was unsuccessful Monday and Tuesday in getting the figures he needs from County Administrator Betty Thomas. Dodge will attempt to get official budget figures from the supervisors, who meet Monday night.
The School Board has set aside four meeting dates this month to finish planning its budget for next year based on the amount the supervisors provide them.
Ira Long, chairman of the supervisors, said Tuesday night that he was unaware that the School Board was faced with a problem.
Long said he thought Thomas had sent Dodge a breakdown of the supervisors' decisions regarding the school budget. Long said he had written School Board Chairman Roy Vickers providing some of those figures.
School Board members, however, said Long's letter does not give them a sufficient basis on which to go ahead with their planning. In the past, they said, the supervisors had provided them a resolution outlining how much money they had approved for schools.
At the end of March, the supervisors approved an overall county budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 that calls for $66.9 million in overall county spending, with $42.7 million of that amount intended for school operations. The board withheld nearly $500,000, however, pending decision on a consolidation of the county's and School Board's finance departments.
The supervisors also have indicated they want to appropriate the school budget by categories rather than in a lump sum. It is unclear, however, whether they intend to follow past practice, in which the School Board determined the final category amounts and sent them to the supervisors for approval.
Vice Chairman Bob Goncz suggested the School Board go ahead and prepare a budget by categories, lacking any other guidance from the supervisors; but Vickers said that idea might be "a little too aggressive."
The School Board had planned to discuss the consolidation of finance departments with the county Tuesday night, but put off that discussion until the supervisors can be provided copies of an analysis of the county's consolidation plan prepared last week by Dodge's staff.
The Montgomery County Education Association asked the School Board on Tuesday to consider giving teachers a full 3 percent raise next year, using money it saved when the school system's health insurance contract came in lower than expected. The General Assembly and supervisors have provided the school system with enough money to give teachers a 1.7 percent raise next year.
by CNB