THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 26, 1995 TAG: 9511230262
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Tom Holden
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
School Board approves wish list
During Tuesday's School Board meeting, the district presented its legislative wish list for 1996, including a reaffirmation of its opposition to charter schools.
The General Assembly is expected to consider several bills early next year that would provide for charter schools. The idea is to create a method by which citizens could create schools that, although public, would be free from certain state and local regulatory policies.
The district argues that if regulations exist that hinder the educational efforts of schools, then those regulations should be abolished, relaxed or changed to solve the problem.
What is not needed, the district argues, is a separate public school system that works on a parallel track to the existing one. Beach educators say charter schools would tend to siphon off the most talented students and teachers.
Among the other legislative wishes, officials say they:
Support efforts to ``fully fund'' the state's share of remedial summer school costs. State law requires districts to fund programs for children who score at the bottom in educational standards exams or who do not pass literacy tests. Students attending these sessions are not required to pay admission. The department of education currently funds remedial summer school programs at 88.6 percent of their total cost.
Support a change in the commonwealth's criminal code that would require law enforcement agencies to notify schools when a public school employee is arrested and charged with any felony or any crime of moral turpitude and not only those involving sexual molestation, physical or sexual abuse or rape of a child.
Favor a change in the way the state funds retirement programs to lessen the impact of large, lump-sum cash payments that must be made by the district to the Virginia Retirement System. The city of Virginia Beach is also on record favoring this change.
The retirement system is asking the commonwealth to call for pre-payments for automatic cost-of-living adjustments paid to retirees. The district favors incremental payments to lessen the financial burden.
Changes in retirement law will boost the cost to fund local teacher retirement programs from $193.5 million for fiscal year 1995-96 to $273 million the following year, requiring $80 million in new spending.
For the Virginia Beach School Board, the additional cost would be $12 million.
Technology referendum reconsidered
The School Board has delayed action on its proposed technology initiative referendum.
In its Capital Improvement Program for the current fiscal year, the district had included a long-range initiative for technology and associated enhancements to the district's schools. The estimated cost was $106,579,938.
The School Board previously had asked the City Council to place the initiative on the May 1996 ballot, but the council took no action to schedule the referendum.
The School Board agreed to discuss the matter at a special workshop Dec. 13 before making a new recommendation to the council. by CNB