THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 3, 1995 TAG: 9508030471
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
After months of lobbying legislators in an attempt to keep more than a half-million dollars in small-schools funding, Currituck County officials can breathe a sigh of relief.
They were notified this week that $538,392 - jeopardized by a burgeoning student population - would again be awarded to the Currituck County schools system.
``It's been a long haul. We've been working on it since March 1994. There are a lot of people to thank, particularly Marc Basnight,'' said Schools Superintendent W.R. ``Ronnie'' Capps.
The funding was restored at the end of the legislative session after State Senate leader Basnight, D-Dare, won approval for his expanded version of the formula for distributing the small-schools supplemental funding program.
The new version was based on Currituck County's situation, said Norma Ware, who serves as general counsel to Basnight.
Basnight successfully raised the enrollment cap for the small-schools funding from 3,000 to 3,150 students, giving Currituck at least two years before it would begin to lose state money used for 17 school-based positions.
``This gives us more time to anticipate how to treat the problem once it arises,'' Capps said Wednesday.
When the fast-growing county exceeds the new cap, funding will remain for the next year, then be reduced by half in the following year. No small-schools money will be given thereafter.
``It seemed unfair to just cut the small-schools funding off completely,'' Ware said of the new grace period and subsequent tapering.
Next year, 3,062 students are expected to enroll in Currituck's junior high, high school and four elementary schools.
Schools officials began lobbying legislators last year when the student population was approaching the enrollment cap.
Then another threat to the funding surfaced last month. The Department of Public Instruction charged the county with using the state supplemental funds to supplant local dollars.
A Currituck contingent quickly mobilized for another trip to Raleigh to defend their actions in 1992-93, when $800,000 was shifted from one fund to another to air condition several schools.
The realignment made it appear that the county had fallen below a specified average in its local contributions for the cost per student, as defined by a new mathematical formula.
But county officials contended the proper amount had been spent since the funding began in 1990-91.
``What Currituck did by shiftingoperating money over to capital expenditure was completely within the law,'' Ware said.
Basnight had the supplanting formula adjusted to read that recipient localities must maintain at least a 95 percent average for local student expenditures over the past three years. Previously, the average went back to the beginning of funding, Ware said.
The adjustments will helped school systems like Currituck, that, according to Ware, ``were potentially being penalized for an action they took in 1991, which was perfectly legitimate at the time.''
Because of the holdup, the county had to wait until Tuesday to offer jobs to some of its teachers.
``It's caused a problem or two in specific areas,'' Capps said. ``But, overall, the people we've interviewed have been very patient and waited.'' by CNB