Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, April 27, 1995 TAG: 9504270048
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Tuesday night, the board tried to come up with alternatives that would retain in a revised $47.3 million budget the goals of its original $49.2 million proposal. The Board of Supervisors rejected a tax-rate increase and approved funding for the $47.3 million budget April 10.
Superintendent Herman Bartlett recommended cutting an across-the-board salary increase from 4 percent to 2 percent and hiring 16 new teachers rather than 18 teachers and an assistant principal for Blacksburg Middle School as first proposed.
The revisions would also reduce funds for technology, vocational equipment, and science and math materials.
Bartlett's original proposal called for higher funds for technology and the acquisition of 10 buses. It also began the process of meeting several of the goals set forth by the Focus 2006 group, which prioritized educational needs in the county.
"We did not want to pull all the money from the 2006 goals, or all of it from the salaries," said Bartlett. "What we've tried to do, I guess, is get that middle ground."
To fund all the budget items related to Focus 2006 would have left school employees with a 1.15 percent salary increase. If the original 4 percent salary increase was met, none of the Focus 2006 goals could be funded.
The School Board was most concerned about justifying 16 new teachers and hiring an assistant principal at the overcrowded Blacksburg Middle School.
Bartlett gave the board many alternatives in funding the assistant principal's position, including eliminating two teaching positions, splitting an assistant principal between one high school and the middle school or pulling a gifted-coordinator position. Of all the possibilities, he recommended a compromise - eliminating one of the budgeted 16 teaching positions and an open maintenance position to pay for the assistant principal.
Assistant Superintendent Jim Sellers showed the board the school-by-school need for hiring 16 new teachers. Margaret Beeks, Bethel, Christiansburg Primary, Falling Branch, Kipps and Riner elementary schools need additional teachers, as will all of the middle and high schools except Christiansburg High.
Board member Annette Perkins, reluctant to give up any of the new initiatives set forth in the original budget proposal, asked Bartlett if there was a way the board would glean any savings from the budget at the end of the year to make up the $1.89 million shortfall in the revised budget.
"We're expecting zero dollars left over in next year's budget," Bartlett said. "There's just no fat left in it" as at the beginning of this year, when the board was able to hire additional teachers and give a small raise to all employees.
That raised the ire of board member Barry Worth, who pointed out that had the Board of Supervisors not cut the budget so much in the first place, the School Board would not be in the predicament it is.
"The [supervisors] chose to say the needs of the children of the county is not worth the penny or two cents on the dollar we asked for," Worth said.
The School Board plans to vote on the budget at its May 2 meeting.
by CNB