Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 14, 1992 TAG: 9203140191
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Superintendent William Asbury expressed disappointment to the School Board Thursday night at the amount of new state money the county will get for the 1992-93 school year.
"We have a whopping $29,000 [more] in state funds," he said. "We really thought we would see upwards of $700,000 in new money."
This news, he said, "made us sick when we received it."
A public hearing on the budget will be held Thursday at Dublin Middle School at 7 p.m. and the School Board will decide afterward on any changes.
Asbury said this was supposed to be the year that the state did something about funding and other disparities between rural and urban school systems, but generally the cities are still getting the biggest increases in state money.
"Norfolk got $7 million, we got $29,000," he said. Some rural systems west of here did better, he said, but not that much better.
A coalition of mostly rural school systems had filed a suit against the state over disparities, but withdrew it to give the governor and legislature a chance to address them.
"My guess would be that we don't have a choice but to do what we started off to do," Asbury said.
Asbury presented his proposed budget to the School Board, noting that it really addressed two years of unmet needs.
He also said it would require $2.4 million more in county funds just for operations and not including capital needs. He had proposed a five-year capital improvements plan that would cost $951,000 the first year.
Asbury's other recommendations included a 3 percent raise for all school personnel, covering a medical insurance rate increase and an unavoidable $256,000 increase for special education to meet new state requirements.
Also recommended were new textbook purchases that had been delayed, 30-minute planning periods for elementary teachers, expansion of foreign language classes into the lower grades, and teaching keyboarding skills in lower grades.
He also recommended closing Jefferson Elementary School at the end of the 1992-93 school year and redistributing its 230 pupils and 10 full-time teachers to Northwood, Claremont and Critzer Elementary Schools.
"It really didn't come as a surprise to us," Michael Amstein, Jefferson's principal, said Friday. "We knew there was a lot of work that needed to be done on the building."
He said the staff's first concern was for the pupils, but the other schools have space for them and are close enough so transportation will not be a problem.
Asbury said the problems - like the need for new roofs - will not go away if ignored and, in fact, will become more expensive to fix.
Other proposed initiatives are part of the goal Asbury and others have stated to make Pulaski County's school system among the state's best.
Earlier foreign language classes and a wider range of languages will be needed for future graduates to work in the global economy, he said.
In the growing computer age, keyboarding has become one of the educational basics, he said, and the county is lucky in already having computers and instructors in place at all grade levels.
Another goal will be making sure pupils at the end of the fourth grade are at the reading levels where they are supposed to be. Asbury said statistics show that those not reading on level by then are most likely to become future dropouts, have academic problems, be unable to get good jobs and become society's problem people.
"We're calling it the emergency room approach . . . if we have to get tutors, if we have to get volunteers, if we have to extend the day, if we have to extend the year," he said.
Likewise, the School Board is considering tougher graduation requirements for county students.
Asbury said this is the last time he would present a proposed budget without an accompanying report on how the school system is doing on its initiatives and goals.
"I think it's time that we as educators embrace accountability, not shy away from it," he said, because he feels county educators are doing a good job.
Although the statement might draw fire, he said, he believed school employees should see a relationship, as business does, between hard work and more money rather than basing salary increases simply on being a year older.
The school system will have to show that it is doing a good job to even ask for more money, he said. "I'm willing to bank next year's budget increases on it."
by CNB