THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 1, 1996 TAG: 9603010463
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Long : 149 lines
The School Board returned to the business of running the district Thursday with a workshop that included one and a half hours of requests for more of what the district has little of - money.
The board began an intensive study of the proposed 1996-97 $394.2 million budget. Board members hope the proposal, which is $34 million more than this year's budget, will guide the district into the next fiscal year more accurately than the past two financial plans.
They were lobbied aggressively by employees who want a cost of living raise and students at Kemps Landing Magnet School, a magnet middle school for gifted youngsters.
``If our children are our future, we need to invest in our future and we don't need to beg you every year to invest in our future,'' third-grade teacher Kathy Arn told the board in asking for more money. ``I'm not aware of any other profession that has to beg every year'' for a 2 or 3 percent raise.
Lois Ray said she left the Norfolk public schools to teach in Virginia Beach because she lives here, but took a pay cut with her transfer.
``We can no longer work for pennies,'' she said. ``If you want a quality education, you have to pay quality money.''
The bulk of the additional money in the proposed budget would pay for positions and programs inadequately funded in previous budgets. But, $8.2 million would cover an incremental pay increase for eligible employees. No cost of living raise was included. The average salary for a Virginia Beach teacher lags behind the state average and is less than in some surrounding areas.
Later in the evening, the board directed associate superintendent for administrative services Donald A. Peccia to look into the cost of giving all employees a 2 percent raise in addition to the step increase. Peccia estimated the cost of living raise would increase the proposed budget another $6 million.
Grown-ups weren't the only ones appealing to the board, however. Several students at the district's Kemps Landing Magnet School, which opened this year, spoke highly of the program. They asked that the board support the addition of 100 more students, one of the few expansions or new initiatives included in the document.
``Students like Kemps Landing, so much they never want to be absent. They never want to miss a day,'' said Benjamin Sachs, a sixth-grader at the school.
``We work very hard, but it doesn't seem hard,'' said Heather Denby, also a student. ``We enjoy being there so much.''
Board members were attentive to the speakers and asked detailed questions in the session afterwards, even though they may not be around to approve the budget before it is sent to the City Council at the end of the month. The council will have final approval of the budget.
Board member Tim Jackson asked about a request from the parents of disabled toddlers for a pre-school program that their children would attend with non-disabled kids. He was told that the budget did not include exactly what the parents had sought - payment of tuition and some personnel for a private preschool, - but that a compromise was included in the proposed plan.
An additional public hearing on the proposed budget is scheduled preceding the board's regular meeting on March 5. MEMO: PILOT ONLINE: The full text of the grand jury's report is on the News
page at http://www.pilotonline.com/
ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
GRAND JURY MEMBERS
Name: Joan Perry Brock
Age: 53
Occupation: Assistant secretary and treasurer of the family-run
Dollar Tree stores based in Norfolk
Background: She is a member and past chairwoman of the
president's advisory council at Virginia Wesleyan College. She is
active in various arts organizations, work that includes serving as
a docent at Chrysler Museum.
Name: Robert H. Callis Jr.
Age: 64
Occupation: Retired harbor pilot
Background: He served on the City Council from 1970 to 1976; was
a member of the School Board from 1978 to 1986; also served on the
Virginia Beach Development Authority, the Eastern Virginia Medical
Authority and the Virginia Resources Authority. He is active in
Galilee Episcopal Church.
Name: Robert A. Dardenne
Age: 61
Occupation: Certified public accountant; retired managing partner
in the Price Waterhouse accounting firm
Background: Past member of ODU's Accounting Advisory Council;
affiliated with the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants; treasurer and member of the Board of the Greater
Norfolk Corp.
Name: Anne Evans Gorry
Age: 54
Occupation: Certified public accountant in private practice
Background: She taught math in the Virginia Beach school district
from 1968 to 1978.
Name: James K. Gregory Jr.
Age: 54
Occupation: Retired vice president of commercial lending at
NationsBank
Background: He is a retired lieutenant colonel in the Army
reserves. He also is a member and past president of the Virginia
Beach Exchange Club, a 20-year-old community service organization;
and member of the advisory board of the Atlantic Wildfowl Heritage
Museum.
Name: Richard D. Guy (jury foreman)
Age: 64
Occupation: Attorney with Shuttleworth, Ruloff & Giordano
Background: He serves as a Virginia Beach Circuit Court
commissioner in chancery. He and Circuit Judge Robert B. Cromwell
Jr. were former law partners. He also led a 1985 committee that
examined the size and selection of the Virginia Beach City Council
and served from 1970 to 1971 in the House of Delegates.
Name: Chester B. Long Jr.
Age: 49
Occupation: Senior vice president of Commerce Bank in Portsmouth
Background: As community service chairman for the Rotary Club of
Hampton Roads, he hatched a successful fund-raising plan to buy the
regional Red Cross a bloodmobile. An alumnus of Old Dominion
University, he serves on the board of ODU's Intercollegiate
Foundation and has served as a trustee on several other ODU boards.
Name: Arthur G. McGowan
Age: 58
Occupation: Attorney in private practice
Background: Retired Navy master chief petty officer; graduate of
Norfolk State University and Howard University School of Law; member
of Tidewater Community College's governing board; member of the
national, state and South Hampton Roads bar associations.
Name: Martha Kellam Stone
Age: 44
Occupation: homemaker
Background: Daughter of semi-retired U.S. District Judge Richard
B. Kellam. Attended T.C. Williams Law School at the University of
Richmond but did not get a law degree; was a substitute teacher in
Virginia Beach for a brief period.
Name: Earl M. Tebault
Age: 66
Occupation: a semi-retired Blackwater farmer
Background: He served on the City Council from the time the city
was formed, in 1963, through 1972. He was named Man of the Year in
Agriculture in 1993. His wife, Laura H. Tebault, was a public
health nurse who served on the Virginia Beach School Board. He was a
member of the Blackwater Volunteer Fire Department and is active in
the Creeds Ruritan Club, the Virginia Pork Producers Association,
the Princess Anne Lions Club and the Virginia Beach Farm Bureau.
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD BUDGET by CNB