Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 21, 1993 TAG: 9305210287
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Today all the teachers in Carroll County are planning to dress in red, signifying - depending on whom you ask - either that they are red-faced angry or that next year's school budget has been cut so badly that it is bleeding.
On June 2, a two-hour education rally on the steps of the Carroll County Courthouse is planned in support of more county money for schools.
All these activities are in response to the amount of money the county Board of Supervisors wants to give to county schools in 1993-94.
Superintendent Oliver McBride already had cut his first budget proposal by more than $500,000 at the supervisors' request. With those cuts came the elimination of eight jobs and three school buses.
Not enough, the supervisors said by a 5-1 vote last week. The governing body wants at least $450,000 more eliminated from the budget request.
The supervisors plan almost $3.6 million in local money for the school system. McBride had originally requested about $1 million more than that.
Harold Golding, principal at Carroll County High, said he learned of the planned demonstration about noon.
He called in the five senior class officers and the student council officers and told them, " `People, if you're going to do something, get it organized and make it meaningful.' And they did a beautiful job," he said.
Golding classified the activity as a "support rally" for quality education. The students went out, walked around the track with their signs, "quietly came back up to class and classes resumed," he said. "It was a very orderly group and I was pleased with the entire student body."
Teachers will make the same point today by dressing in red, the same color as the paper on which the Carroll Education Association has printed flyers outlining the situation.
The June 2 rally is scheduled to run from 4 to 6 p.m. Del. Tom Jackson, D-Hillsville, has agreed to address the group, according to association President Cheryl Rodgers, and other speakers are being lined up.
"I feel real positive about it," she said. "I want to reach as much of the county as possible."
Friends of Carroll Education, a citizens' group, is supporting the rally with the education association.
The school system also will lose state and federal education money totaling more than $50,000 next year, compared to its current budget.
by CNB