
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, August 15, 1995                   TAG: 9508150108
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV5   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

CLOSE CALL ON BUDGET WOULD HAVE BEEN GAME-SHOW WINNER

If Dan Morris had been playing "The Price is Right" game show instead of balancing the Montgomery County school system's budget, he would have won the jackpot.

In his presentation to the School Board on Saturday, Morris, the director of finance, quietly itemized some of the past year's financial accomplishments - new accounting software and a shortened budget process, to name a few.

Then, casually, Morris slid a transparency of the school's preliminary operating budget summary for the 1994-95 fiscal year on to the projector.

It took a moment for the board to read and comprehend the bottom number: $5,122.

That's the amount of money the division didn't use by June. That's the money they'll return to the county. The county, in turn, will add that to the schools' already approved budget.

And that averages out to 0.011 percent - less than 1 percent of the $45 million budget that was not used.

Now, imagine Morris on "The Price is Right," where the contestant who comes closest to guessing the total for the sailboat and camping equipment, without going over, wins.

Had he been using his budgeting talents on the television show, Morris would have won the sailboat, the camping equipment and the new car.

"That's impossible," shouted Assistant Superintendant John Martin. "The textbooks will tell you to get less than 1 percent [on expenditures] can't be done."

Normally, Morris said, the county schools spend all but around 1 percent of the allotted budget. That would make a usual surplus of roughly $450,000 - 90 times more than this year's surplus.

Morris said the school system was forced to spend its money extra carefully last year after the federal government failed to come through with $300,000 in funding.

The final tally on the budget surplus estimate may change slightly when the "extremely cooperative treasurer" (otherwise known as Ellis Meredith) makes his final report, Morris said.

Asked if he ever considered a trip to Hollywood to win some cash, Morris laughed.

"I don't even know the price of a box of corn flakes. I just know the price of school equipment."

by CNB