Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, June 3, 1993 TAG: 9306030145
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER SOUTHWEST BUREAU
DATELINE: HILLSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
The board will hold its budget hearing during its meeting next Wednesday.
"You can tell your children that you were here the day that Carroll County made an open community commitment to education," said Jim McAlister, one of the founders of Friends Organized Regarding Carroll Education, which helped sponsor the rally.
"You're part of something special here today," agreed Del. Tom Jackson, D-Hillsville. "We have been quiet as a community for too long on the issues that really matter to us."
People of all ages, from toddlers to the elderly, covered the courthouse lawn to hear the speakers and music.
It came in response to the Board of Supervisors telling the School Board to cut its proposed 1993-94 budget by $450,000 in local funding after school officials already had sliced $500,000 from what they originally wanted. That would make the school operating budget next year a little lower than this year.
But even after its own cut, the School Board was asking for more than $1 million more in local funds, County Administrator Billy Mitchell said.
In budgeting county funds, the supervisors hit a median between the minimum amount that they could spend under state mandates and the amount in this year's budget.
"I think it's a little unfair to characterize the Board of Supervisors as anti-education, because they're not," Mitchell said when asked his reaction to what speakers at the rally were saying.
He noted that many were calling for more emphasis on computers and other new initiatives, and that the proposed school budget had addressed none of those. "You're asking for more and more money, but we're not doing anything more with the money," he said.
Mitchell said it would take a tax increase to do more for schools, plus other major expenses that will be hitting the county such as making its buildings handicapped accessible.
"Which is fine, if that's what the people in Carroll County want," he said. But it will be difficult in a county where the per capita income is $9,800 a year.
He pointed out that Carroll teachers got raises of 5.5 to 6 percent this year.
"I could do without a salary increase, if that's what it takes," said Dale Webb, librarian at Carroll Intermediate School. "Let's do the best we can, not the least."
According to Rob Jones, president of the Virginia Education Association, Carroll's effort in support of education ranks 115th in Virginia and its ability ranking is 97th.
Jones was not at the rally, but sent a letter to Carroll Education Association President Cheryl Rogers saying Carroll is not making an appropriate local effort.
"I think that your local elected officials want to do what is right also," Jackson told the crowd. "That's not to say that we can have everything that they have in Northern Virginia. . . . We don't have loads and loads of money that we can dump into our educational system."
But he said economic development and bringing new businesses to Carroll will require an educational system that can turn out graduates who are computer-literate and able to handle technical jobs.
"This is an event that has united every segment of this community," said District 3 VEA representative Don Skeen.
"I will say this: The voice of this community will be heard and, if not today, then most certainly on Election Day."
Supervisor Avis Collier, who cast the lone vote against the lower school budget, and Supervisor Emmett Jones appeared at the rally, as did Mitchell.
Memo: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.