THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 24, 1994 TAG: 9411220195
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Education
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
QUESTION: What happens when the public hands you a $28 million wish list but only $4 million is available?
Answer: You make some people unhappy.
That was the sober message the School Board and administration officials delivered last week at a workshop previewing the 1995-96 budget.
``We're going to have to make some tough choices,'' Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said. ``It is clear that we will not be able to make everybody happy.''
This early in the process, budget numbers are still ``really rough,'' said Clyde H. Burnett Jr., assistant superintendent for business and finance. But school officials were clear on one thing: Simply maintaining current programs will be a challenge.
Even with optimistic projections, school officials said, the system can expect only about $4.3 million more in 1995 than the current $181 million budget.
An increase of that size won't go far: A 4 percent employee pay raise, for instance, which would outpace projected inflation by only 1 percent, would cost more than $6 million. That means it will be tough to offer the salary increases sought by Norfolk's two teacher unions, officials said.
And then there are the other requests made by PTA members, teachers and community groups at a public budget hearing last month. Budget officials have tallied the requests at $28.6 million.
Of that, $13.7 million was for employee salaries and benefits while the remainder was for capital projects - $11.2 million in building requests and $3.7 million in equipment and supplies, including classroom air-conditioning.
Trying to free up more money with budget cuts would be difficult as well, officials said: Already, nearly 80 percent of the current budget goes directly into instruction. Overall, salaries and fringe benefits account for more than 86 percent of the budget, meaning that people would lose their jobs with deep spending cuts.
On the revenue side, Burnett said, early estimates indicate Norfolk could get an additional $1.7 million from the state, which provides 45 percent of the district's funds. That includes $1.1 million for early childhood programs for ``at-risk'' 4-year-olds; but there's a caveat. The district would have to provide matching funds to get it.
The schools optimistically might receive $1.5 million more this year from the city, which chips in 41 percent of the system's revenue. Federal cuts of as much as $600,000 are anticipated.
School Board chairman Ulysses Turner urged people who attended last week's workshop to lobby City Council and their state legislators for more money.
Last year, Turner said, the City Council gave the board $27.5 million for capital projects over the next five years instead of the $49 million requested. The bulk of it - an estimated $15 million and growing - has been committed to renovate Granby High School, Turner said.
Turner said state education funding probably will take a back seat to prisons. Gov. George Allen's successful push this year to end parole in Virginia could cost up to $2 billion in new prison construction.
``It seems the mood of the nation is to incarcerate, incarcerate, instead of education,'' Turner said. ``I think we should educate and reform.''
Superintendent Nichols said, ``The mood in the state seems to be let's build more prisons and not raise taxes. They've got to get the money from somewhere, and the indications we are getting is that it will come from K through 12.''
Turner said programs for the system's brightest students and underachievers would suffer most. ILLUSTRATION: File photo
Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr.: ``We're going to have to make
some tough choices. It is clear that we will not be able to make
everybody happy.''
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOLS BUDGET
by CNB