ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, May 11, 1996 TAG: 9605130043
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
The Pulaski County School Board will meet at 4 p.m. Monday to rework its 1996-97 budget, which is not getting as much county money as school officials hoped.
"By now, I think everybody's aware that our proposed budget to the Board of Supervisors was reduced," Superintendent Bill Asbury said at Thursday's School Board meeting.
The school system wanted an increase of about $371,000. The supervisors have set an increase of $116,000 in their advertised budget.
Asbury said the School Board next week must "go back to the drawing board and see what you would like to do with that reduction ... I know it's going to have a serious impact."
In approving the $116,000 increase, the supervisors said they would take up the School Board offer to form a joint committee to seek economies by possibly combining some school and county operations. Asbury said he had not yet been officially notified of that decision, and would contact county administrators about it.
In other business, the School Board got its first look at a proposed calendar for the 1996-97 school year.
The calendar includes six-hour school days at all schools. Asbury said all county schools except Dublin, Claremont and Riverlawn Elementary Schools already have been running for six hours, and those three schools had missed it only by 10 to 15 minutes. Their day will be extended by changing the times of their school bus runs.
The committee which came up with the proposed calendar had built in an early release of students every other Monday. School would end an hour early, but teachers would stay until 4:30 p.m. for in-service training and other work.
School Board member Beth Nelson suggested that the committee consider having early release every Monday, to avoid confusion over which Mondays were early-release days and which were not. She said teachers could also use those hours to meet with parents.
The Pulaski County Education Association officers favored the every-Monday early release, and the vote among teachers was almost a tie, with a slight majority for every other Monday. The committee will re-examine that part of its recommendation.
LENGTH: Short : 49 linesby CNB