THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 20, 1995 TAG: 9510190160
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
From the Oct. 11 issue of ``In the Know,'' a publication of the Virginia Beach Education Association
First it was the delay in receiving supplies in some schools, then it was a reduction in the number of field trips, then tighter staff allocations, then a significant reduction in the number of course offerings available through staff development. Now there is a 75 percent reduction in the amount of money available for hiring substitutes for custodians who are sick.
Custodians, who saw their workload increase when ServiceMaster took over two years ago and cut the number of custodians by at least one in almost every building and by as many as three in some, now are being asked to pick up the slack when a co-worker is out sick. The reason - the budget crisis!
In the '94-'95 budget year, $595,000 was spent hiring subs. This year, only $158,000 is budgeted. Yet the same amount of cleaning has to be accomplished to keep the buildings clean and healthy. If there are five custodians assigned to a building where there used to be six and one is out sick, then four are expected to do the work that was parceled out to six people only two years ago.
Our custodians are managing to keep up the pace in most buildings and the Custodial Services director, Eric Hines, has been responsive in rescheduling or reducing work in some buildings or working with the custodians who can schedule a few extra hours to pick up the slack, but how long can our custodians be asked to pick up a co-worker's load? How long could a teacher continue to cover a colleague's class if they decided to cut the budget for teacher substitutes by 75 percent?
It is obvious by all these cuts in spending that the administration does not have confidence in what has been budgeted for the '95-'95 school year and wants to hold off on spending until this year's budget has been analyzed. As a matter of fact, Dr. Pughsley will present that analysis with recommendations at the Oct. 17 School Board meeting.
If it turns out that too little has been budgeted, the School Board needs to ask the City Council for whatever is necessary to continue to fund the schools at a level that will continue to provide the quality of education that the citizens of Virginia Beach have come to demand and have a right to expect. The leaders of this city cannot expect budget shortfalls by inept administrators to be balanced on the backs of the hard-working employees of the school district or suffered by the children of Virginia Beach. by CNB