THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 3, 1996 TAG: 9602030012
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
Now that a House of Delegates committee has rebuffed efforts by Virginia Beach City Council to force consolidation of the School Board's financial services with its own, it's time for the two bodies to cooperate.
Lawmakers in Richmond this week sent the warring parties home with an admonition to settle their differences without the aid of a new state law. We don't agree, but the decision has been made and both sides now need to get to work. They simply must reassure taxpayers that never again will there be a mess like the ugly $12million school deficit of 1995.
The City Council is in an untenable situation at present. It alone has the power to tax the citizens of Virginia Beach to pay for school services and yet council has no control over how the school system manages its money. Or mismanages it, as the case may be.
For more than 18 months City Council has tried to persuade the School Board to come to a voluntary agreement to consolidate. For 18 months the School Board has stalled.
Consolidation would introduce clearer accountability to the situation. Accounting, bookkeeping and purchasing for the school system would be handled by a consolidated staff under the leadership of the city's finance director.
The $12 million mess is more than an embarrassment to the Virginia Beach public-school system. If the tangled finances aren't straightened out quickly and kept that way, the Beach's AA bond rating could be threatened. And a school system in such straits is hardly a lure for businesses considering a move to the resort city.
The School Board claims to be concerned about a loss of control. Under the consolidation plan proposed by City Council, the School Board would retain all of its supervisory and advisory powers.
But in an effort to save taxpayers money and increase efficiency, the school's accounting, payroll and purchasing departments would be combined with the city's under the leadership of the city finance director.
Education would remain the business of the School Board, but keeping track of the money to pay for it would fall to the city, where the responsibility belongs. by CNB