THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, July 10, 1994                  TAG: 9407080321
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON    PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   45 lines

NOT JUST A LOAN BUT EXPLANATIONS, TOO: WHAT SCHOOLS OWE

Last Tuesday, City Council voted 10-1 to lend the school administration $1.7 million because it's come up short on cash to computerize two new schools. That solved Superintendent Faucette's short-term problem, which Council had put off the Tuesday before: how to bridge this gap in funds.

It didn't solve a long-term puzzle:

Why this gap in funds?

Councilman John Moss, lone holdout in the vote to transfer the money, kept asking that question and another: Why couldn't the schools shift the funds from elsewhere in their own budget? The responses didn't leave him as convinced as the schools that their system can prevent a recurrence of whatever happened here. Is the rest of Council convinced?

Maybe not, despite their votes to approve the schools' request. It takes major political moxie to let students sit down to new desks with empty space where computers are supposed to be. It takes more discernment than most politicians think voters have to distinguish who's to blame: the schools that ran up the bills or the Council that wouldn't cover them?

But whether the school system is handling its appropriations properly and wisely is a question run up a $40,000+ flagpole that got citizens' attention right smartly. It came on the heels of a School Board race that plumbed the depths of accountability to the Christian Right and the shallows of accountability by the school system. The business of education has its purely business side, and the folks who fund it are due not just the bills but explanations of them.

Not just John Moss but all of City Council, not just school administration but the School Board should be asking questions and getting answers. Superintendent Faucette says the full explanation lies in executive session. Fine: Hold one. Meantime, a diagram on schools' procedures and precautions for building schools and keeping track of funds would give Council and public a better grasp of the problems. Schools, too.

KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD BUDGET VIRGINIA BEACH CITY

COUNCIL by CNB