ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, April 27, 1996               TAG: 9604290039
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-4  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: FINCASTLE
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER

BACK TO DRAWING BOARD FOR SCHOOL BUDGET COMES IN SHORT OF WHAT'S NEEDED

It's back to the blackboard for more arithmetic for the Botetourt County School Board.

The county Board of Supervisors approved a budget Thursday that gives the school system a $2.4 million increase instead of the $3.6 million it requested.

The School Board is essentially stuck with $1 million in start-up costs for its new middle-school program. So the board must decide if it wants to still budget a $1.2 million increase for employee salaries and benefits.

The teachers "want something and they deserve something, and we hope we can accommodate them," School Board member Michael Beahm said. Sally Eads, another School Board member, said she also thinks the middle-school costs and the teacher raises ought to stay in the budget.

The county's $41 million budget reflects an almost $5 million increase from last year. About half of that is accounted for by the increase given to schools.

"We all knew these expenses were coming since that November night in 1994 when the [middle-school] bond referendum passed," School Board Chairman Jim Ruhland told the supervisors at a public hearing last week.

But this is a lean year for the county, which, according to County Administrator Jerry Burgess, is dipping into its reserves for $4.5 million to balance the budget.

The result is a bind for the School Board.

Ruhland told the supervisors that eliminating every new cost in the school budget other than the money for salaries and the middle-school program would amount to less than a half-million dollars. That leaves a $700,000 shortfall for the School Board to deal with.

Other increases in the county budget include about $22,000 for the commonwealth's attorney's office that will allow Joel Branscom to live up to one of his campaign promises by hiring a full-time assistant prosecutor. He currently has a part-time assistant.

Branscom said the move will probably pay for itself, since one of the assistant's duties will be to aggressively pursue the $500,000 in court costs and fines owed to the county.

Sheriff Reed Kelly said his $67,000 budget increase will allow him to hire two drug officers. That will pay dividends in more seizures of drug money, which is divided between his office, the commonwealth's attorney's office and the state, Kelly said.

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