Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 31, 1993 TAG: 9401060237
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Bartlett, who is finishing up his first six months on the job since moving here from Colonial Heights, wouldn't give any hints this week about the budget proposal he sent out to the nine School Board members before Christmas.
But he'll introduce and explain his 1994-95 budget scheme in a public meeting that begins at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in the basement of the school administration's headquarters at 200 Junkin St. in Christiansburg.
In recent years, former Superintendent Harold Dodge publicly introduced the broad outlines of his budget proposal in early December, then filled in the details in January. But in his rookie year here, Bartlett chose a different tack.
Earlier this month he held a budget briefing for the School Board and the public, but with a ``rollover budget,'' one that included the costs of just preserving the status quo for the system of 19 schools and 8,700 students.
Because of the opening next fall of a new elementary school on Prices Fork Road west of Blacksburg, the school division will need to spend $2 million more just to stay even, a nearly 5 percent increase for a total budget of $44.7 million.
But pushing against a no- or slow-growth budget will be two other factors: on the one hand some 154 requests for money that would cost $21 million in the unlikely event they were all funded; second, uncertain state revenue projections and a county Board of Supervisors that will have only a small revenue surplus to appropriate to school spending and other competing interests.
Following Tuesday's discussion, the School Board will hold a series of six work sessions on the 1994-95 budget, beginning at 7:30 p.m. Thursday. After a Jan. 25 public hearing, the board is scheduled to adopt its budget two days later, after which it will be forwarded to the Board of Supervisors.
The supervisors go through their own budget process through much of February and March, leading up to adoption of its spending plan and tax rates by April 1.
In other business Tuesday, the School Board is expected to discuss a proposed policy governing the use of video cameras on school buses and a proposed code of ethics for staff members. When the code came up for discussion in October, the Montgomery County Education Association asked for a rewrite because its members believed the code would infringe on teachers' First Amendment rights and would equate professionalism with loyalty to management.
The draft code of ethics has since been re-examined by a committee of school division employees, including the MCEA president. The new draft condenses two sections dealing with ``commitment to accurate representation of the schools'' and ``commitment to good interpersonal relations.'' It omits language that the MCEA found insulting, including a passage that said employees ``shall refrain from participation in negative idle gossip regarding the function of the division.''
The School Board is not expected to adopt either policy Tuesday night.
by CNB