Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 9, 1994 TAG: 9403090149
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The budget, up $4.1 million from the current spending plan, provides average raises of 4.6 percent for teachers, 3.4 percent for school administrators and 4 percent for other employees.
It also includes funds for hiring 25 new teachers to provide smaller classes in kindergarten through third grade in schools with a high concentration of at-risk children.
The board members approved the budget unanimously Tuesday night after Superintendent Wayne Harris briefed them on the changes in his earlier proposals.
Harris' preliminary budget was prepared before the General Assembly approved $1.1 million in school disparity funds for the city in each of the next two years.
Harris recommended earlier that teachers be given average raises of 4 percent, but he increased it after getting the additional funds.
Of the $4.1 million in new funds, $2.2 million will be used to provide pay raises for teachers and other school employees.
About $1.2 million will be used to hire teachers, meet new state mandates on special education and expand a reading program in elementary grades for at-risk children.
Harris said the rest of the new money will be spent on instructional technology, support services for at-risk children, technology for business and technical education and other programs.
In his first budget since becoming superintendent, Harris has put priority on raises to help Roanoke become more competitive with other school systems.
In recent years, Roanoke's teachers have not fared well in raises. The city has dropped to 65th in starting pay and 20th in average salary for teachers among the state's 133 school systems.
Harris said the pay raises in the new budget are the first step in a three-year plan to make Roanoke competitive in teacher salaries not only locally, but also nationally.
Harris' budget pressures were eased by the disparity plan to reduce the funding gap between rich and poor school systems. It will provide Roanoke with $2.2 million in the next two years, the most for any locality in Western Virginia.
The city will use the funds to lower the pupil-teacher ratio to 18-to-1 in schools with more than 50 percent of the students from low-income families.
The ratio will be 20-to-1 in schools with between 25 percent and 49 percent of the student population from low-income families.
The city will hire 30 new teachers to reduce the class sizes in kindergarten through third grade. This will include 25 to be hired with the disparity funds, and five to be hired with funds that have been reallocated from high school teaching positions.
Roanoke also will receive about $610,000 in additional state aid in each of the next two years through the restoration of an $80 million package of initiatives for at-risk children that was approved by the General Assembly in 1992.
Overall, the city will receive a net increase of $3.1 million in state aid for schools in the next year, Harris said. This includes the disparity funds, at-risk money and increases in other funding categories.
The school system also will receive an increase of about $917,000 in city funds in the next year.
Harris suggested that the board may want to ask City Council for an additional $296,000 to hire three school nurses, three elementary guidance counselors and one visiting teacher for elementary schools. Harris said these positions are needed, but there are no funds for them.
by CNB