THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 20, 1997 TAG: 9702200057
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B4 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 66 lines
Among the city's education boosters and parent activists, next year's proposed education budget is being greeted with about as much enthusiasm as an outbreak of chicken pox.
The superintendent's proposal, which the board has not acted on, calls for $418.7 million in spending for 1997-98. The money, however, will barely cover existing services along with the opening of two new schools, employee raises and a handful of other increased costs, school officials have said. There are no new or expanded programs in the spending plan due to limited revenue.
The list of what didn't get in is long.
For instance, the proposal does not include adding students to a preschool program for at-risk four-year-olds even though grant money is available for expansion if the division could match it.
Likewise, a program to reduce class size in kindergarten through third grades will continue as is, but won't grow.
No new ninth graders will join the International Baccalaureate program at Princess Anne High School or the Math/Science Magnet Center at Ocean Lakes High School.
Plans to add a day program to the city's night high school for adult and at-risk students, Open Campus, also didn't make it into the proposal.
Folks like Michael Hamar, president of the Virginia Beach Association for the Gifted and Talented, say they are frustrated by the turn of events and plan to work for more money to support the schools. For Hamar's group, that means lobbying City Council.
``Here we've got, for the first time in my memory, some world-class programs. And now they're in jeopardy,'' Hamar said. ``It's the loss of potential that people need to look at.''
Jane Brooks, president of the Beach Council of Parent-Teacher Associations, said parents throughout the city hoped to see class sizes reduced, one of the items that was not included in the proposal. Brooks also expressed concern about the number of kids dropping out of school.
``Without program funding for new initiatives to help these kids, those numbers could keep creeping up,'' she said.
A key factor yet to be resolved is how much money the schools will get from the city. Negotiations over a formula to fund schools have not been completed. The city has taken the position that if school officials need more money than they are given, they must request a tax increase.
Last week, the council advised the board that $182.7 million would be available from the city to run the schools. The school budget had already been developed, however, based on a city contribution of $195.2 million. Even using the higher figure, Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney described the budget as flat.
City officials say they must provide for the needs of all services and that there simply isn't enough money to go around. They have said school leaders must prioritize the district's needs.
Hamar said for the first time ever his group has set up a phone tree to reach its entire 1,000-plus membership in a matter of days. The group plans to mobilize as many people as possible for next Tuesday's City Council meeting when a plan to pay for schools is supposed to be voted on.
Melody Copper, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association, called the budget ``woefully inadequate'' because of the lack of money available through the revenue sharing plan. Copper said her organization, which is made up of more than 3,800 of the division's employees, will work with the school board to convince the community and the council of the need for a tax increase if one becomes necessary.
KEYWORDS: SCHOOL BUDGET