                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, September 8, 1995              TAG: 9509070186
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON    PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Editorial 
SOURCE: Beth Barber
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   75 lines

POP QUIZ

The way to get the plain truth about the school-budget mess is through plainspeak. It's as scarce as textbook funds.

In an effort to ferret some clarity from the process, herewith a quiz drawn from real-life responses from real-live school administrators during the School Board's ``budg-et workshop'' Tuesday:

1. How much was charged to the '94-'95 school budget to cover ``canceled'' '93-'94 purchase orders?

(a) $2.8 million

(b) About $1 million

(c) Either, depending on whether (like chief financial officer Mort Smith) you count '93-'94 requisitions, which are requests for purchase orders, against '94-'95 school accounts

2. Were goods and services on those canceled '93-'94 purchase orders delivered in '93-'94?

(a) Yes

(b) No

3. Were goods and services listed on those canceled '93-'94 purchase orders for use in '93-'94 or '94-'95?

(a) Yes

(b) No

4. What caused the ``shortfall'' of $7.4 million for FY'94-'95?

(a) City staff's failure to advise City Council to advise the School Board that school staff had grossly overestimated federal aid

(b) School staff's overly optimistic revenue projections

(d) Schools' unbudgeted expenditure of $8,732,801 on eight items, each in excess of $250,000

(e) Empty ``enterprise funds,'' pots of revenue designated for athletic events, textbooks and self-insurance costs.

5. What caused empty ``enterprise funds''?

(a) Until '94-'95, when Council changed the rules, schools could use, say, money in the self-insurance fund for something other than the deductible due if, say, a school should burn down

(b) School administration had plundered those accounts in '93-'94, had not replenished them as scheduled and had not properly recorded its failure to replenish them

6. Who should have but seems not to have known how much money was (not) in those funds?

(a) Then-superintendent Sidney L. Fau-cette

(b) Then-chief financial officer Hal Canary

(d) Then-members of the School Board

7. Was ``budget-impact'' information - how much a new program would cost and where the funds for it would come from - that school administration provided the board always accurate?

(a) No.

8. What does the school system do when facing a significant revenue gap?

(a) Lobby Washington for more aid

(b) Luck out on other aid

(d) Transfer other funds

(e) Predict a surplus

(f) Demand more money from Council

9. Why should a professional firm never before engaged by the school system audit its books?

(a) Because, as interim superintendent Jim Pughsley said, school and city staff need to get on with the current year's work

(b) Because, as Dr. Pughsley said, the chips should fall where they may by CNB