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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 22, 1991                   TAG: 9103220739
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NEAL THOMPSON EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

SCHOOLS BUDGET BALANCED

The other benefit of the new $63.2 million version, which the School Board reviewed Thursday, is that it is balanced. A week ago, that was not the case.

Superintendent Bayes Wilson called it a "hold-the-line budget." All departments will get the same amount they received last year or, in many cases, less.

Board member Charlsie Pafford called it "a mess."

The budget is $366,000 less than its original draft. The difference is due to a nearly $2 million drop in state funding, only $1.6 million of which will be returned by the county Board of Supervisors.

Pafford had suggested last week that the easiest way to make up the difference was to cut salaries by 1/2 percent next year. That was not necessary, but there will be no salary increases or new programs.

"This is something that has not happened since I have been on the board," said Chairman Frank Thomas, who has served for eight years.

The budget also lacks the $75,000 for extra personal-leave and sick-leave days that teachers have requested for years.

And the county will be able to replace only one of its school buses.

"Nobody can be happy with what we have here," Pafford said. "It's not what we need. It's what we have to live with."

With some shuffling, though, $100,000 of the $150,000 aimed at protecting employees against insurance premium increases was preserved.

Insurance rates are expected to increase 20 percent next year. Board members had feared that if they rise more than that, employees would have to pay the difference themselves. And that would be especially difficult with no salary increases.

But allocating the $100,000 sets the county back at least another year in its goal to put $650,000 in an insurance reserve fund. The reserve, which would allow the board to switch insurance companies if Blue Cross/Blue Shield rates became too high, now has $488,000.

"Under the circumstances, this is the best that we can do," said Jerry Hardy, budget and data management director.

In other budget business, the board reviewed a report on school attendance zones that the Board of Supervisors had requested. Supervisors had asked whether realigned school attendance zones could help avoid some school construction projects.

But the report concluded that even if enrollment at some schools were balanced by shifting attendance lines, construction still would be needed.

Also, changing the lines would go against the board's "neighborhood school concept," said board member Maurice Mitchell. "My personal feeling is that we stick to that concept. And this report addresses that."

That report and the new budget are to be presented to supervisors Tuesday. The School Board is scheduled to adopt the budget Thursday night.