PULASKI SCHOOLS BRACE FOR BUDGET AX

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

DATE: FRIDAY, April 16, 1993                   TAG: 9304160353
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI                                LENGTH: Medium
PULASKI SCHOOLS BRACE FOR BUDGET AX
The Pulaski County School Board got ready Thursday night to make the cuts necessary to live within proposed funding limits for 1993-94.
The Board of Supervisors has cut the School Board's funding request for next year by half, actually giving it less than it got this year.
The supervisors are starting with a base level of funding of all county agencies, and then seeing what increases they might want to make for each in the coming year.
The board had asked for about $484,000 more in operating funds from the county, and $783,000 for building maintenance and capital outlay needs.
The supervisors tentatively planned to increase the amount in local funds from this year by $400,000. It is not clear whether that amount would be added to operational funds or would be for capital needs.
The county provided $500,000 for capital needs this year, so the total amount is actually $100,000 less. Until school officials learn how the $400,000 is to be used, they cannot finalize their own budget.
"It is a desperate situation," Superintendent William Asbury told the School Board. "The county has bent over backwards. They've gone about as far as they can go, I understand that."
But cuts in state funds have left the school system worse off for the coming year than it was at the start of the current year.
"Do we cut programs? Do we close schools? Do we turn our aggressive school division into something less than our citizens have indicated they wanted?" Asbury said.
The board already has looked at closing Newbern Elementary School in a year or so because of funding limits. Dr. Scott Brandau, a parent, asked that any such plan be reconsidered, saying that Newbern was one of the county's best examples of how a school should be run.
"They're doing everything right there, and that's the school that's next on the list," Brandau said.
Newbern PTA President Bill Craft protested, too, but said he realized state funding cuts are to blame.
"They've got a new Lotto building that they're going to build, and things of that nature, and we're closing schools. It's not right," he said.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB