THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 14, 1996 TAG: 9603150658
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 112 lines
SCHOOL administrators have proposed what they call a ``bare bones'' budget for the 1996-97 school year that allows the city school system to add a few new programs but mainly just ``hold its place'' in the educational world.
Among the challenges they face are the largest student enrollment in more than two decades, and the politically touchy subject of asking City Council for more money to fund pay raises for teachers and other employees.
School officials unveiled the proposed $199.4 million operating budget at a special School Board meeting last week.
``I think we're making an attempt to respond to increasing customer demands,'' said budget director Forrest R. ``Hap'' White. ``We just don't have the money to go where we need to be. This is a hold-the-line budget.''
Spending would rise approximately $11 million over the current $188 million budget, an increase of nearly 6 percent. That's based on a projected infusion of more than $7 million in additional state aid and a nearly $3.9 million increase in city funds.
But the city money is not a sure thing. Administrators said it's needed to fund a modest pay raise. School officials hope to increase employee salaries by an average 3.4 percent; about four-tenths of a percent would come from the state under a budget approved Monday by the General Assembly.
In the last three years, teacher raises have barely kept pace with the cost of living - not enough to give them increased buying power, administrators said.
``Looking at the cost of living on teachers the last few years, they really probably deserve a 5 percent increase, not 3 percent,'' Superintendent Roy D. Nichols Jr. said. ``We felt 3 percent was all that we could ask from City Council. We were trying to weigh the politics of the situation.''
To defend their request, school officials said they've received level funding from the city the past six years, and are due a boost.
White said the city provided about $75 million in the current 1995-96 budget, about $100,000 more than what the schools got in 1990-91 - an increase of one-tenth of a percent.
During the same six-year period, the consumer price index increased 17 percent, he said, meaning that the schools' cost of doing business has far outstripped the increase in city funding.
``We need the city's help to provide teachers the same level of raises they're talking about giving city employees,'' White said. ``It's been six years since there was an increase in local funding for schools and this is the year we need it.''
School board member Robert F. Williams, who met recently with Mayor Paul Fraim and other city officials, said he came away with the impression that the city didn't have more money to give.
``There was a clear statement that this was beyond what they could provide,'' Williams said of the $3.9 million.
But Deputy City Manager Darlene Burcham said this week that it's too early to start forming battle lines. There still are too many unknowns about other revenue sources, including state and federal funding. The city manager will not release his proposed budget to City Council until April 23.
``There's plenty of time for debate,'' Burcham said.
Burcham said, though, that it's unfair to judge city funding of education without including the amount spent on capital projects, which for the five-year period from 1995-1999 now stands at about $35 million.
``We have put a significant amount of money into capital improvements for the schools,'' Burcham said. ``For the last five to six years we've either built a new school or renovated a school every year. That's pretty impressive.''
Not subject to debate is the enrollment growth, projected at 740 students and the largest in more than 20 years, officials said. It will add slightly more than $2 million in costs. Enrollment now stands at about 35,000 students.
The growth is attributed to an influx of Navy families at the Ben Moreell Navy housing complex. Many of the new arrivals are coming from a Navy base in Charleston, S.C., targeted for closure by the federal government in a military downsizing plan.
Two elementary schools - Sewells Point and Camp Allen - will feel the greatest impact.
Based on current attendance zones, the new arrivals would attend Sewells Point, but because it lacks the space to house that many, some of the school's students will be sent to another elementary school, most likely Camp Allen and perhaps Larchmont, school administrators said.
Parents with children at the schools will get a chance to comment on various options to redraw attendance zones later this year, perhaps by April, officials said. Students most likely to be shifted out of Sewells Point are ones who now ride a bus to school, officials said.
Among some of the new initiatives proposed:
A comprehensive elementary reading program calls for two hours of uninterrupted reading time in every elementary school. The $593,387 program would add eight teachers and resource workers, an after-school tutorial program and several other programs to improve reading. The money would come from state funds that would have been spent on new ``basal'' reading books.
For the first time in six years, funds for school supplies would be increased. Teachers would have a total of $330,324 to buy such classroom supplies as computer software and teaching materials.
Two programs would be created to house disruptive middle school students. One would provide an in-school alternative for 32 students at each of the city's eight middle schools. The other would require hiring a private contractor to run an off-campus program for up to 50 students who have been expelled or placed on long-term suspension. Total cost is $499,810.
Band uniforms would be replaced at two of the five high schools. The schools likely would be chosen by lottery. Cost is $72,623. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
PUBLIC HEARING
The School Board will hold a public hearing on the proposed
1996-97 budget tonight at 7 p.m. in Lake Taylor Middle School's
auditorium. The public is invited to comment. Copies of the $199.4
million budget plan are available at schools and library branches
for public review.
by CNB