THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, May 21, 1995 TAG: 9505200103
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VANEE VINES, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
The Portsmouth School Board voted 5-1 Thursday to approve only the total dollar amount for the 1995-96 operating budget: $85,206,849.
Ray A. Smith Sr. opposed the move. Charles H. Bowens II and Leah D. Stith didn't attend Thursday's meeting. Evelyn Hyman left early.
The board approved the bottom line but said it would consider reshuffling some dollars after 26 teachers, parents and students complained about reduced funding for magnet programs and the superintendent's plan to reassign several magnet school ``facilitators'' to full-time teaching jobs.
Board members said they wanted Superintendent Richard D. Trumble to re-examine spending choices to see whether more money could be freed up for the popular magnet programs.
The board also said it wanted Trumble to think harder about reassigning some facilitators to the classroom next school year. School-based facilitators make sure magnet programs operate smoothly.
Trumble didn't attend the meeting. Early Thursday, he said five of the six magnet facilitators would be reassigned to vacant teaching jobs. Park View's Montessori program would keep a facilitator, he said.
The $85.2 million budget is $1 million less than what the board originally approved in March before City Council shaved $1 million from the local share for education.
After the council vote, Trumble cut nearly $1.2 million in areas such as maintenance, supplies, equipment, travel and staff development. The administration also has tried to save money by reassigning several administrators to vacant teaching jobs for next school year, instead of hiring new workers.
Trumble pinched a little more than $1 million from maintenance and other areas to restore some of the money previously cut from magnet programs, cover the local match for a state initiative to educate more at-risk 4-year-olds, and pay storm water management fees.
If the board had approved not only the bottom line but also the administration's spending suggestions, all six magnet programs would have split a total of about $139,000 next school year. Fifty-eight percent of that money would have gone to the Montessori program. Other magnets would have received an average stipend of about $11,600.
The budget approved in March drastically slashed special funding for the magnets: about $98,000 was included for all six programs. The administration later decided to add about $41,000 to that.
In comparison, the board earmarked a total of $416,305 for the programs' ``non-salary'' costs this school year. Sixty-eight percent of that money was tagged for the Montessori program.
In schools that use the Montessori method, youngsters work at their own pace on individual projects and comfortably sprawl on the floor with equipment that stresses learning through doing, rather than the traditional pencil-and-desk method. The program is costly because it requires special training and materials.
Business Affairs Director James T. Roberts, who substituted for the superintendent Thursday, urged the board to approve the operating budget's total dollar amount so the administration could wrap up employee contracts for next year.
KEYWORDS: BUDGET EDUCATION PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB