DATE: Monday, March 10, 1997                TAG: 9703100032

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   57 lines

SCHOOL BUDGET, STANDARDS OCCUPY CHESAPEAKE BOARD THE NAME FOR A NEW MIDDLE SCHOOL WILL BE HIGH ON TONIGHT'S AGENDA.

The School Board will be especially busy Monday night working on a $200 million budget, approving new academic standards and naming a new middle school in Deep Creek.

But before board members get that far, citizens can have their say on any of those topics at a public hearing at 7 p.m.

If recent history is any indication, the most popular subject at the hearings will be the naming of the new middle school.

At the last board meeting Feb. 24, eight citizens spoke. Of those, seven came to oppose a board committee's recommendation to name the new middle on Cedar Road in Deep Creek for Hugo A. Owens Sr., one of the city's first two black members elected to City Council.

Instead, they asked the board to continue to consider the name of Charles Brabble Sr., a longtime principal in Deep Creek schools who still lives within sight of the new school, which will open in September.

On Monday, the board will lay to rest the heated debate - but expect discussion in the future about the relatively new policy of allowing schools to be named after people rather than geographical location.

At the Feb. 24 meeting, the only citizen who did not come to speak about the naming of the middle school addressed the proposed budget, specifically its pay increase for teachers.

Teachers' salary raises for next year amount to $4 million of the $12 million increase over this year's budget. That averages out to a 3 percent overall increase for teachers, but for teachers at the top of the scale it means only a 0.3 percent cost-of-living raise, or $136 more a year.

That is not enough, said Randall Trivett, president of the Chesapeake Education Association. The CEA has asked for a raise averaging 5 percent for teachers, and Trivett said he plans to be there Monday to remind board members of that proposal.

Board members asked the administration for alternatives to the existing pay-raise structure, ones that specifically would address the problem of the small increase for teachers at the top of the salary scale - but they didn't ask for more money overall. Superintendent W. Randolph Nichols said he learned from city officials, who are facing a $19 million shortfall over the next two years, that there is no more money available for raises.

Instead, Monday night, board members will consider alternatives that would equalize the distribution of money.

Board members had expressed the hope that they might be able to take final action on the $200 million budget as a whole Monday as well. If that doesn't happen, a special meeting is scheduled for March 20 for that purpose.

Also on the agenda for the evening is a request for approval of the district's new and more rigorous academic standards. The standards were developed partly in response to the 1995 Virginia Standards of Learning and include beefing up math and social studies requirements for graduation. If approved, the new standards will go into effect starting with the Class of 2002, this year's seventh-graders. KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE SCHOOLS

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