NO RAISES WITHOUT CUTS, SCHOOLS TOLD

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

DATE: FRIDAY, March 12, 1993                   TAG: 9303120371
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
NO RAISES WITHOUT CUTS, SCHOOLS TOLD
Roanoke County schools would have to cut more than half a million dollars in budget requests to accommodate employee salary raises, under a proposed budget reviewed by the School Board on Tuesday.
The proposed $68 million spending plan for the next fiscal year includes an average 2.5 percent employee raise. But finding money for raises would mean forgoing a good chunk of $1.3 million in departmental requests, Superintendent Bayes Wilson said.
"We have some real needs we'd like to get to," he said. But finances "couldn't stretch that far. We put priorities on salary increases."
Board members asked Jerry Hardy, director of budget and finance, to compile a list of the departmental requests that were excluded from the proposed budget.
"We've got to know what's not being done," board member Charlsie Pafford said. "We don't know what we're trading off."
Hardy said he would have to examine the requests closely to determine what had been cut. The items included supplies, equipment and new staff positions, he said.
Should any additional revenues become available, Wilson has suggested that they be used for higher raises.
A committee of administrators and teachers spent the past three months working on the teacher salary scale, in part to address teacher salary discrepancies.
Some county teachers had expressed concern that those with four years of experience were in many cases making the same as those with 11 years of service.
"I'm going into my 16th year of teaching and my salary is closer to a first-year rather than a 20-year teacher," Allyn Mitchell told the board. "If you find a few extra dollars, or if [Governor] Wilder sends a check with an extra zero, please address some of these inequities."
The proposed budget is up about 3.1 percent over the current county school budget. Local money comprises half of the proposed $68 million spending plan.
The state is providing school systems with money for a 3 percent raise. But that won't kick in until December, so it amounts to a 1.75 percent raise for the September-to-June school year.
"It's nothing but smoke and mirrors," Board Chairman Frank Thomas said of the state money. "They really need to own up to it. Let's not play games with numbers."

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB