ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 17, 1997 TAG: 9701170047
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
Some years, the Montgomery County school system can spend up to $400,000 on new textbooks for students.
Now, the county wants control over that spending.
For years, the school system has used a separate account - filled with state and local money - to pay for books. To school officials, it assures money when updated books are needed. If the money goes into the county's general fund - as an independent auditor has recommended - school administrators fear they'll lose that security.
The separate account was established decades ago, when schools purchased books and "rented" them to students through a textbook fee. Three years ago, the state legislature mandated every school system cover the cost of books for all students.
To help, the state allocates about $300,000 to Montgomery County each year. That, plus about $130,000 from the county, makes up the account.
Now that the school system has stopped managing student fees, auditor Deanna Cox told the Board of Supervisors this week, the account is obsolete.
Cox said she's audited Franklin County, which switched the textbook funds from a separate account to a line item in the overall school operating budget. That change went smoothly, she said later, but it depends on how well boards communicate with each other.
Supervisor Mary Biggs expressed concerns about eliminating the account. Putting textbook money in the school budget would place that fund in competition with other financial needs, she said.
Biggs argued the textbook fund serves a dual purpose: ensuring county schools will have enough amount money to buy textbooks, and serving as an interest-bearing financial tool.
"Why not anticipate expenses? That's what a budget does," Supervisor Henry Jablonski responded. If the school system overspends the amount budgeted for textbooks, "they've spent it unwisely," he added.
Schools usually purchase books on a six-year cycle. In the past 10 years, the fund has held a low of $100,000 after a large book purchase to this year's high of $550,000.
But often, textbook needs can be unpredictable. In Pulaski County, which stopped using a separate account three years ago, the schools will need at least $500,000. That's because when the state presented new Standards of Learning requirements, it provided only about a third of the funding to cover updated books. (Montgomery County administrators estimate similar costs.)
Walt Shannon, business manager for Pulaski schools, said administrators aren't sure how they'll include that kind of money in next year's budget request to the Board of Supervisors.
The Montgomery County supervisors won't make a decision on the fund until their Jan. 27 meeting. In the meantime, finance directors from the school system and the county will meet to seek a compromise.
Staff writer Robert Freis contributed to this report.
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