THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 7, 1996 TAG: 9601060142
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 31 lines
The real challenge to the newly elected members of the School Board is not in how they address the educational policy issues that dominated the recent campaign; it is in how successful they can be in persuading the City Council to come up with more money to build schools.
It would cost $172.9 million to build enough classrooms to accommodate the students who are expected to move into town during the next five years. As things stand, the capital budget for school construction is $48 million shy of that amount.
Running short of money to build schools is not a new problem for the city. As many as one in four pupils already lack brick-and-mortar classrooms.
Tolerance for the situation is diminishing. The School Board has been responding to the pressure by reducing the number of new portable classrooms; only 10 were added last year, compared to 50-60 in years past. But if enrollment climbs at expected levels, the effort will be in vain.
The Board's only recourse will be to convince council members that schools are more important than other municipal building projects and maybe even more important than maintaining the city's current debt limit. by CNB