ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 5, 1996 TAG: 9603050019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
After a three-year hibernation the Montgomery County Taxpayers Association has awakened from its slumber - this time to question the 12 percent increase in the School Board's proposed 1996-97 budget.
The group of six (they're trying to recruit additional members) sent a list of questions to the Board of Supervisors, challenging the need for such a hefty increase.
The questions piqued the interest of least one supervisor, who asked similar questions at a recent budget work session.
"I think any input from the people in the community is helpful," said Chairman Henry Jablonski. Even with familiar issues, he said, "sometimes someone can raise a question I hadn't thought of before."
The board is grappling with the school budget proposal - and the 19-cent real-estate tax increase necessary to fund it.
"I don't want you to get the idea that we're against the schools," said John Beamer, who was president of the Taxpayers Association in its last incarnation several years ago.
But the proposed budget increase "is a lot of money, and I don't feel like seeing my mortgage rise $18 or $20 dollars a month" because of it, he said.
Beamer said the group originally formed in the 1940s. It re-forms occasionally as the threat of tax increases looms during budget negotiations.
In 1993, members spoke out against a budget proposal that would have increased taxes to pay for renovation projects including the library in Blacksburg and the Health and Human Services building in Christiansburg.
This time, Arne Saari, former Montgomery County schools superintendent, gathered the group together to discuss the school budget.
"We just started gathering at the College Inn - you know, guys shooting the breeze and trying to find out if we have something to talk about. It turns out we did," Beamer said.
Members include people who have been or have tried to be members of local or state government.
Dick Edwards served on the School Board until the fall election, when he lost his seat to Virginia Tech professor Jim Klagge. Jack LeDoux, chairman of the local Christian Coalition chapter, also ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the board.
Beamer, former county GOP chairman, planned to run for the 39th district state Senate seat until he acknowledged improperly taking money from an insurance group for which he was secretary-treasurer.
Many of the questions sent to the Board of Supervisors challenged funding initiatives developed in Goals 2006, a document developed by teachers and parents across the county and used by the School Board as a rationale for its funding increases.
"It's like telling a group of people to get in a room and list all the things you'd like to see without worrying about money or where it was going to come from," Beamer said of the initiatives. "Now [the School Board is] saying to the Board of Supervisors, 'OK, now you think about the money.'"
The School Board has proposed hiring 27.4 teachers, in part, to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio.
"Can the school system provide the research data or results that show how the learning process is affected by changing the pupil-teacher ratio incrementally?" the questionnaire asked.
Beamer said he hoped to shed a different light on the budget, and on whether Goals 2006 needs to be reviewed and amended regularly.
Other questions include why the School Board hasn't implemented an "extensive phonics method" in schools and how the board can propose a 7 percent increase for employee salaries "when the cost of living index for 1996-97 is predicted to fall."
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