Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995 TAG: 9505040072
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MELISSA DeVAUGHN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Teachers and other school employees will receive a 1.2 percent salary increase rather than the 4 percent requested in the original budget. The schools' budget request was trimmed by $1.89 million last month by the county Board of Supervisors to avoid a tax rate increase.
The administration presented the School Board with three options for making the budget cuts, and the board chose the one that funded all the Focus 2006 goals - but also gave the smallest salary increase to employees.
"The first reaction is just shock because we worked very closely with the administration on the 4 percent" figure, said B.J. Mullins, president of the Montgomery County Education Association. "We understood [Superintendent Herman] Bartlett, in his second proposal, had to make the [2 percent] cut, but we had no idea that they would be reducing that to 1.2."
Last year, school employees received a 3 percent across-the-board salary increase, but teachers salaries in Montgomery County continue to drop below both the rate of inflation and the state teacher salary average year after year, Mullins said.
Barry Worth, one of three board members who voted against the budget, said a 1.2 percent increase is not enough.
"A mere 1.2 percent salary increase will affect the kids," Worth said. "Your employees will have very low morale. ... I think the original request of 4 percent was a reasonable one."
Superintendent Herman Bartlett suggested asking the Board of Supervisors for supplemental funds to provide for the full 4 percent increase, putting the responsibility for teacher morale in the laps of those who cut the funds in the first place.
The School Board agreed, and will ask the supervisors for an additional $951,000 to fund the increase.
"Since we've been thrown in this decision-making process, we've been forced to choose on things when we know they're not good for the school system," Worth said. "Let's let the Board of Supervisors make the decision."
Board member Dick Edwards voted against that move. It is doubtful the supervisors would fund such a request, he said.
"I think [the School Board members] have to live with what they're given," he said.
Mullins said the move is simply a ploy to take the blame off the School Board.
"We see this year after year after year, and it becomes very tiring and very frustrating to watch the Board of Supervisors and the School Board volley back and forth the blame," she said. "What we need is our leaders - all of them - to accept responsibility for fully funding the school budget."
With Tuesday night's vote on the reduced salary increase, Mullins said the School Board is "trying to indicate to the public that they're not responsible for decreasing the salary even further, and that's just not true. They're doing this knowing full well that the Board of Supervisors will say, 'That's your problem'; and that's frustrating. It's being made very clear to me over and over that the solution to this problem lies in the elections this November."
This November will be the first time Montgomery County voters will have a chance to elect some of their School Board members.
On the bright side, next year's budget begins to tackle the goals set forth by the Focus 2006 Planning Commission, a community group that set priorities for educational needs in the county.
Sixteen new classroom teachers will be hired to account for growth in the county and keep all classes below 26 pupils. Three new technology positions will be added - two coordinators and one grant writer. Two gifted-resource teachers will be hired for the elementary schools, and an assistant principal will be added at the overcrowded Blacksburg Middle School.
The many building improvements and additions needed throughout the school system are not part of the budget and were not discussed at Tuesday's meeting. Those projects, including plans to build four new schools in the next five years, are part of a capital improvements plan decided by the supervisors. However, the budget does include $174,000 for six more mobile classrooms.
The vocational and the science and math departments will receive $97,650 and $50,000 respectively to pay for overdue equipment repairs and additions, and a Saturday art program will resume for children throughout the county at a cost of $3,000.
by CNB