THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 2, 1995 TAG: 9510310111
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 123 lines
SCHOOL EMPLOYEES systemwide asked for better salaries. Parents lobbied for smaller classes and air-conditioning. Teachers sought more instructional supplies, as well as a much more basic schoolhouse need - additional toilets for female staffers.
More than 100 people showed up at last week's ``wish-a-thon,'' as one participant put it, to discuss their budget needs and wants for the 1996-97 fiscal year, which begins next July 1.
They aimed for the sky, with requests in the millions of dollars, and if they're lucky, some of them may at least get off the ground.
It's all a matter of money - or lack of it.
Giving the public a chance to present their budget priorities has become an annual ritual for the School Board, the first step toward developing the next year's budget.
These are a few voices of the 16 people who spoke:
Larchmont Elementary parent and PTA member Lynn Hundley asked for smaller classes: ``We are maxed out of classrooms at Larchmont. We currently have two portables, but I believe it is time to add one more.'' Fifth-grade classes, for instance, average 23 students systemwide, compared to 28.5 at Larchmont, she said.
Norview High teacher Carol Taylor asked for better salary raises and money for buying fans at non-air-conditioned schools: ``After spending $100 on fans for one classroom, I am financially unable to purchase fans for all the rooms in which I teach.'' Taylor, a 27-year teaching veteran, said she got a 1.4 percent raise last year, even though the average teacher raise was 3 percent.
Sharon Margulies, principal of Little Creek Elementary and president of the city's elementary school principals association, asked for assistant principals and parent resource workers at every elementary school, smaller classes and $25,000 from which to draw grants to meet special needs, from slow learners to accelerated readers:
``. . . We expect each teacher to send each child to the next grade with the same level of competence on all skills. Until we are willing to recognize that we must provide varying resources and varying class sizes to meet these variety of needs, we will continue to fail some students.''
James N. Jenkins, a parent, asked for more resources at the Coronado School, an alternative school for pregnant girls. Among other things, he said the school did not have a library or books for biology classes: ``Even though there is approximately the same money spent per student as the other Norfolk schools, there is such a vast disparity in the basis of materials already in the school that the quality of resources available to each student is much less.''
Shirley George, president of the Education Association of Norfolk, asked for a computer on every teacher's desk, smaller classes, a tripling of instructional supplies and more staff bathrooms: ``Once we asked for potty breaks - now we ask for the potty. It's inconceivable in this time of team building and TQM (Total Quality Management) that there are schools with only three commodes for a staff of more than 60 (mostly female) while principals (often males) have rest rooms for their exclusive use!''
Marian Flickinger, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers, asked for an expansion of early childhood and alternative education programs for disruptive students. It costs $20,000 to house a prison inmate versus $7,000 for a student to attend an alternative school: ``We believe it would be better to provide intervention in the form of alternative programs so that there is not only a savings to the taxpayer but an opportunity for students to become productive citizens versus career criminals or dropouts.''
Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr., while painting a potentially bleak funding picture, voiced assurances as well: ``Every budget year we seem to go into it saying it's going to be austere . . . yet we usually can find the money to do those things that are most important.''
He acknowledged, though, that ``there aren't enough dollars'' for all of the funding requests and that tough choices will have to be made.
This year, the School Board came with its own request: Pressure state legislators for more money. With federal budget cuts looming and city funding flat, the need for state funds is more critical than ever, board Chairman Ulysses Turner said.
``The School Board needs your help,'' Turner said.
A high-profile campaign by an influential group of Virginia business leaders for a $400 million increase in higher education will be worthless without more money for K-12, Turner said.
``If we don't graduate the students, they'll never get to college,'' he said. ``If we're going to fund your requests, I think we're going to have to seek additional funding at the state level.''
School officials said about 57 percent of the school system's current $188.1 million budget - about $107 million - comes from state sources. About 2 percent is federal, and the rest local.
Rarely is the board able to come up with enough money to meet the annual wish list. Last year, requests totaled $28 million, far more than the $7 million increase in the budget. Even then, much of the $7 million had to be earmarked for specific purposes, such as state initiatives for smaller classes in grades K-3 and at-risk 4-year-olds.
Turner, however, said the board would air-condition three more schools in the next year, choosing from among these four: Northside Middle and Mary Calcott, Crossroads and Sherwood Forest elementary schools. ILLUSTRATION: POTENTIAL BUDGET IMPACTS IN 1996-97
It's much too early to say with certainty what the year 1996-97
holds for the city's schools, budget director Forrest R. ``Hap''
White said. But White outlined his predictions of the five ``major
challenges'' of the next budget year.
The potential impacts are:
A change this year in the funding of Virginia's retirement system
will increase the amount of money paid up front, as much as $5.6
million in a ``worst case'' scenario.
An anticipated growth in U.S. Navy housing could increase school
enrollment by 1,000 students, most of them in the Camp Allen and
Sewells Point elementary schools' attendance zone. It would mean
more money from the state, but it also would require more teachers
and could cause space crunches and create a need to redraw the
attendance areas.
An increase in the number of special education students, the most
expensive to educate, is expected. Special ed now consumes 14.5
percent of the instructional budget, and is the fastest growing
segment, White said.
A state policy to funnel more funds into early childhood
programs, while fitting in with the system's philosophy, will
require matching funds and more space. This school year, the system
added its third early-childhood center, at Oceanair Elementary,
assisted by $1.1 million in state funds.
A 3 percent salary raise, anticipated as the minimum to allow
employees to stay ahead of inflation, would cost about $5 million.
by CNB