THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 22, 1994 TAG: 9407210172
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 41 lines
Last year Virginia Beach schools hired about 60 more teachers than needed. Some 1,300 fewer students enrolled than the school system had projected.
That reality check cost taxpayers $2.5 million.
That's more than the schools just borrowed from the city because they ran short for new-school computer networks. Whatever pot schools' costs come from, taxpayers filled it.
Tying up money where it's not needed, running short where it is, seeing it all in hindsight - could a business survive that way?
School systems learn, as well as teach.
This year, schools are trying to ``be a little more conservative,'' Deputy Superintendent James L. Pughsley told staff writer Elizabeth Thiel last week. `` . . . It's easier to go back and add staff in September than it is to pull staff out. We'd like to avoid both situations. But again, we'd rather be in a position to add staff than to have too many people.''
But again, what's too many? Even with last year's 60 ``extra'' teachers kept on this year and 60 or more new teachers added, classes that are small but significant to the 12 or 15 students in them will be dropped from middle and high schools. Core classes may be larger. Principals don't like that. Students don't. Parents don't, especially if the courses cut hit some neighborhood's schools or groups of students harder than others. Are taxpayers in for a hue and cry about more money for more teachers to keep small classes?
Everything is a trade-off. Here's another: The schools re-quested 5 percent raises for teachers. City Council preferred to keep raises citywide at 3 percent. From whom, from where and for how many teachers can schools squeeze another 2?
KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOL BOARD by CNB