Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990 TAG: 9004240170
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: SHARON HODGE SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: COLLINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Iriswood Supervisor Robert Whitener Jr. asked the board to cut $442,000 from operation and maintenance expenses, but the board rejected that proposal and passed the proposed $37 million plan.
"I can't see keeping a school open with 13 or 14 students in a class when we have other schools with 30," Whitener said. "The same tax dollars are being spent" to operate crowded classrooms.
Describing the school as "an unnecessary expense," he said that the money the county could save by closing the school could be used for school bus tires, textbooks and building maintenance.
Whitener's motion specified that the money should be taken away from roof repairs, which Superintendent Virgil Poore said would cost about $348,000, and other maintenance work.
County Attorney Bill McGhee advised that supervisors cannot reduce specific line items from school expenses, however. Only the School Board can do that.
Poore said in March that Samuel Hairston Elementary would be closed if any reductions were required to approve the budget, which is $2 million higher than the current year's.
Vice Chairman Simon Spencer, a school system employee, said he was not willing to cut anything. But, he told board members, his support of the school plan was not automatic. He pointed out that last year he was willing to reduce the school budget by $500,000.
Martinsville District Supervisor R.J. Frye, who voted with Whitener to reduce the budget, said that eliminating money from school expenses could stave off a "significant tax increase two years running."
A 22 percent real estate levy increase - from 54 cents to 66 cents per $100 of assessed value - has been proposed by County Administrator Lee Lintecum. Last year real estate taxes in Henry County jumped 30 percent.
Ridgeway District Supervisor Francis Zehr said the fate of Samuel Hairston School still is not written in stone. The board has yet to appropriate the funds approved Monday, he said.
According to Zehr, four votes are needed for the appropriation, while the budget passed with only three. Blackberry District Supervisor S.E. Moran was absent Monday.
Zehr said Moran could be the deciding factor when the time arrives to actually spend the money allocated for the schools.
by CNB