ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, January 25, 1997             TAG: 9701270028
SECTION: CURRENT                  PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER

MONTGOMERY HOLDS SCHOOL BUDGET HEARING TUESDAY

As it does every year at this time, the Montgomery County School Board struggles between how much it needs to spend and how much it actually will get.

This year, as it tries to find a budget request that would seem reasonable to a fiscally conservative Board of Supervisors, the School Board might cut much of what it needs.

The list includes reading teachers, gifted and special education help, science and vocational education supplies, school buses, at-risk programs, middle school foreign language classes - just about every initiative planned for in systemwide initiatives developed three years ago.

At 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, the board will present a proposed budget and hear comments from the public during a forum at Christiansburg High School. As of Thursday night, the board had not made any concrete decisions on what to cut, save or spend in the budget that takes effect July 1.

Two weeks ago, Superintendent Herman Bartlett proposed a 6.75 percent budget increase, which gave little room for hiring new teachers, expanding programs or much else besides maintaining the status quo.

Part of meeting his proposed budget involved cutting the equivalent of about nine teachers from the 28 requested by school principals. But some board members questioned the method of cutting requests to appease its funding source, the Board of Supervisors.

It's one thing to cut items once the supervisors allocate money for the budget, said board member Wat Hopkins, "it's another to sacrifice our initiatives at this table before we even present a budget to the Board of Supervisors."

"We have more responsibility than simply to ask for what would be ideal for our educational system," countered board member Jim Klagge. Asking for a 12 percent increase, the amount requested by the board last year, is not politically feasible, he said.

The board will meet again Monday to decide on the budget, which it will present at the forum Tuesday.

LENGTH: Short :   45 lines