ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 9, 1997 TAG: 9704090026
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER THE ROANOKE TIMES
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on April 11, 1997.
Pulaski County Supervisor Charles Cook said his only comment at
Monday night's joint meeting between the supervisors and School Board
involved the possibility of using the county's school needs as leverage
to obtain more state funding. He said he did not call the School Board's
request for a $2.3 million increase in local funding a "no-brainer," as
reported in Wednesday's Current.
The Pulaski County School Board knows it's asking for an unrealistic budget but says it's the principle of the thing.
As far as the Pulaski County School Board is concerned, its proposed 1997-98 budget is just enough to meet minimal education needs.
But it would also require an increase of more than $2.3 million in local funds, or a 23-cent increase in the real estate tax.
"That's a no-brainer," Supervisor Charles Cook said at a joint meeting of the Board of Supervisors and School Board Monday night.
School Board Chairman Lewis Pratt acknowledged that the supervisors might wonder what kind of fools would bring such a proposal before the governing body.
"Well, here we are," he said. "Our request to you is help us any way you can."
Supervisor Bruce Fariss said the School Board is in a better position than the supervisors to decide where cuts should come.
"We need a number that we can live with, and we can't live with the number that we have now," Fariss said, which would require the supervisors to make cuts. "Maybe that's the way to do it but I think there's a better way."
School Board member Rhea Saltz said he and other members had tried making the cuts in advance and then presenting a bare-bones budget. "That's exactly what we did last year," he said. "And that budget was cut."
"Well, there's only so many dollars. The pockets are only so deep," Fariss said.
The School Board defended its budget proposal on two grounds: that every dollar and program requested was needed, and that this is the only way to alert citizens to those needs.
"We know you can't do it," Pratt told the supervisors. "But we think the public needs to know what the real needs are."
"Why do we have 11-year-old textbooks?" Saltz asked. What, he asked, does he tell a parent who complains to him about the shortcomings of a school building?
"We'll get by," Saltz said. "No matter how much you give us, we'll educate children." But he said the education will not be what it could be.
Supervisor Jerry White agreed that the public should be made aware of the situation, which stems from cuts in state money or state mandates that localities must pay for.
"We do way beyond what is mandated by the state to do," he said of local funding. "The problem is how we got to this point to start with."
Pratt agreed. State funds to Pulaski County for schools will increase only 2 percent in the coming school year, not enough to cover any needs such as building deterioration, new textbooks, the state's own new learning standards, or a 4 percent salary increase for school employees proposed by the General Assembly.
The economic health of Pulaski County is not like that of Northern Virginia, for example, Pratt said, and needs more state support for education. "We're having to do things we've never done," added Superintendent Bill Asbury.
The state share of the school budget is 63 percent. The county pays 32 percent, with 5 percent from federal sources.
White and others suggested that some of these budget questions should be requested at the state level.
School Board member Jeff Bain said that had been tried. Beth Nelson, a board member who was in Gov. George Allen's office several months ago when the new state standards were being announced, made the attempt.
"She was trying to ask the governor some questions and she was politely told they didn't want to hear what she was asking," Bain said.
The supervisors will hold work sessions on the budget at 7 p.m. Monday and on April 21 before its next regular meeting at 7 p.m. April 28.
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