Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 16, 1994 TAG: 9404180123
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Medium
For School Board members, the answer is: trouble.
School Board members plan to meet again Monday to wrestle with that equation, which so far they've been unable to solve.
Board members debated Thursday how to absorb the city's cuts without reaching a consensus.
The choice came down to whether they preferred to balance the budget by eliminating a new school nurse or by reducing a pay raise for school employees.
Vice chairman Chip Craig argued for hiring the nurse and reducing the salary increase from 3 percent to 2.6 percent.
Radford schools don't have a nurse. First aid or dispensing medication is handled by teachers or administrators, an arrangement that Craig said "terrifies me."
"Someone professional should be doing this. We've been lucky so far. It only takes one tragedy," he said.
Board Chairman Guy Gentry agreed, noting that state mandates will soon force Radford schools to hire a nurse.
Yet board members Guy Wohlford and Betty Plott drew the line against reducing the salary increase.
Both voted in favor of cuts that would have maintained the 3 percent salary boosts while eliminating $29,943 budgeted for a school nurse.
That motion failed to pass, as Craig and Gentry voted no, and board member George Ducker abstained.
Ducker leaned toward eliminating the nursing position. But he said board member Carter Effler - who was absent from the meeting - should be allowed to vote on the question.
The 2-2 deadlock means the budget vote will be carried over until Monday's special meeting, which Effler is expected to attend.
Other means of reducing the budget were discussed, including reducing or eliminated $15,000 in supplemental funding for Radford High School athletic programs.
That money is for anticipated revenue shortfalls caused by Radford's drop in athletic classification from Group AA to Group A, and the loss of lucrative football games with traditional rivals Blacksburg and Christiansburg.
The board did agree to make up about three-quarters of the budget cut by eliminating duty-free lunches for elementary school teachers, funding to join a classroom telecommunications network and increases in employee health benefits.
In other business, the board voted to make June 18 the last day of school and the date of high school graduation.
The school year will run unusually long this year because of many weather-related makeup days.
by CNB