Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 11, 1990 TAG: 9004110448
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MARK LAYMAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As part of that deal, the school administration agreed to merge its budget, accounting and payroll department with the county's - a move that gives the Board of Supervisors more control over school spending. Four school employees in that department will go to work for, and be paid by, the county.
But County Administrator Elmer Hodge agreed to let the schools keep the $125,000 that would be saved by the move. The money will be used to give non-teachers the same average pay raise of 5.2 percent that teachers will get next year. It also will help offset the cost of higher employee health insurance premiums.
Eddy questioned why Hodge didn't simply reduce the school budget by $125,000.
He also said he wondered where the county would find the space for four additional finance employees.
He voted against the deal, but the other four supervisors went along with Hodge.
Supervisor Bob Johnson made it clear to Hodge that the supervisors didn't want him to do any costly remodeling or to rent office space for the four school employees.
Hodge has said that while the move will cost money in the short run, it will save money in the long run by improving efficiency. The additional personnel costs can be reduced over time as employees quit or retire, he has said.
The supervisors publicly criticized the School Board last week in news reports of the deficit. But on Tuesday, Johnson said the county's school system was "second to none in the state of Virginia" and "it had to be administered competently to get us to where we are."
The school system faced a $500,000 deficit this year as the result of overspending on an expanded dropout-prevention program. The School Board asked the supervisors for a $500,000 "advance" against next year's budget.
Also on Tuesday, the supervisors approved a deal worked out by negotiators from Roanoke and Roanoke County that would give the county a majority of seats on the school board of the consolidated Roanoke Metropolitan Government.
Many county residents had complained that, under the original consolidation agreement, the city would dominate the consolidated government's school board.
Five members of the school board would be chosen from voting districts in the former city and four would be chosen from voting districts in the former county.
The change agreed to by the city and the county would add two seats to the school board. The town of Vinton would get one. The other would go to the locality that had the largest school enrollment on Feb. 28, the date the agreement was signed. That was Roanoke County.
"I don't believe the city of Roanoke would ever have agreed to this" before now, said Johnson, who helped negotiate the original agreement. "It's a better deal for us."
Supervisor Harry Nickens, who also helped negotiate the original agreement, voted against the change. He said earlier that it looked as if the city was trying to buy the county's support for consolidation. He also objected to negotiating the change in the makeup of the school board separately from the rest of the agreement.
"This is one down and two to go," said Supervisor Steve McGraw, who favors other changes in the agreement.
The change in the makeup of the school board will require a change in the consolidated government's charter. Del. Clifton Woodrum of Roanoke has agreed to ask the General Assembly to consider that when it meets for a one-day session on April 18.
by CNB