
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 5, 1991                   TAG: 9103050451
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

FUNDS DISAPPOINT SCHOOLS

Local school districts learned last week that they will get a little more money than expected from the state next year - but it's still less than they got last year.

More money is certainly not bad news, but school officials had hoped for more than the amount approved by the General Assembly.

The new money is the result of budget amendments that would return about $45 million of the $151 million Gov. Douglas Wilder initially had recommended cutting from schools in December.

In December, Roanoke learned it would lose $1.8 million over last year; officials learned last week they may get back $370,000. Roanoke County would get back $428,000 of the $1.4 million it expected to lose. Salem would get $219,000 of the $455,000 it would have lost.

The extra money is "pretty good news for us," said Salem Superintendent Wayne Tripp. "It's not as good as what we had hoped for, but certainly we can work with it."

Roanoke County and Salem, both still putting together their budgets for next year, have not determined where the extra money will be used.

Tripp said it has been difficult to prepare this year's budget because the numbers keep changing and the state hasn't kept school districts informed about each change.

"I find it maddening that an awful lot of this information comes to the press before it comes to us," he said. "We've been overwhelmed with information and underwhelmed with useful information."

Roanoke will use the money to offset a few of the drastic cuts the administration has recommended. The funds may help save a few teachers' positions, if the School Board approves the recommended budget as scheduled Thursday.

If approved, that budget includes a list of cuts in positions, pay raises, programs and courses totalling $2.7 million.

In the county, the new money will help, but not enough to avoid a recommended budget that is $500,000 less than last year. That budget was introduced last week.

These new numbers are a bit deceiving, though, and not all money returning to schools is due to the assembly's generosity, said Suzette Denslow, deputy secretary of education.

Of the $45 million being returned to schools, $28 million actually would be added to the budget, Denslow said. The other $17 million was freed up when legislators used new enrollment figures showing 9,000 fewer state pupils than the number Wilder used in December.

Also, some of the new figures include money for such things as special education and vocational education that wasn't included in Wilder's December estimates.

In Roanoke, special-education funds account for nearly $90,000 of the new money.

by CNB