Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 19, 1995 TAG: 9504190064
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
The School Board did not vote on the revised budget Tuesday night. It will meet April 25 for a budget work session and make its final decision May 2.
Bartlett urged the board to respond soon so the administration can begin sending out employee contracts for next year.
"We realize we can't please everyone completely but ... we're doing the best we can for salaries and getting our foot in the door on starting to accomplish about 10 of the initiatives" set forth by the Focus 2006 Advisory Commission, Bartlett said. "We've taken what we thought was our best shot."
The School Board originally asked the Board of Supervisors for $49.2 million, but the supervisors rejected a tax increase last week, leaving the School Board with $47.3 million.
The proposed budget cuts out new elementary school secretaries, an additional assistant principal and one new gifted resource teacher, but still provides for 16 additional teachers to account for growth in the area.
It also takes out funding for the purchase or lease of 10 new school buses and eliminates funding for the International Baccalaureate program, a rigorous college-preparatory program.
Under the proposal, teachers and other school employees will receive 2 percent across-the-board salary increases instead of the original 4 percent the board had sought.
"I don't think it [the decrease] surprised any of us," said Mary Biggs, vice president of the Montgomery County Education Association, a teachers' advocacy group. "But I don't know how teachers feel about it, because not that many people know about it yet." Board member Barry Worth said he supported most of the changes in the revised budget, but believes that teachers got the short end of the stick.
"I think it's very important that teachers get more than 2 percent," he said. "If the county employees can get a 5 percent increase, then 4 percent for teachers is not too much to ask."
Worth suggested increasing the county goal from a 25-to-1 pupil-teacher ratio to as high as 28-to-1 as a way of shifting money to increased salaries.
"I've heard from parents and teachers that we need to lower the [ratio], but we've done it at the expense of our employees," Worth said. "That lowers morale. We have to look at what that does to the classroom."
Board member Peggy Arrington reminded the board that the 25-to-1 ratio was a goal set forth by the Focus 2006 group, which represents the wishes of more than 300 community members, including teachers, parents and school administrators.
Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.