DATE: Wednesday, May 21, 1997               TAG: 9705210505

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY ALETA PAYNE, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   72 lines

BEACH SCHOOLS APPROVE BUDGET; $11.2 MILLION LESS THAN ORIGINAL BY DIPPING INTO ITS SURPLUS, THE BOARD MANAGES TO SAVE POPULAR PROGRAMS.

Leaving programs intact but shifting back a portion of employee raises, the Virginia Beach School Board on Tuesday unanimously approved a $411 million budget for the coming fiscal year - $11.2 million less than had been proposed.

The budget preserves programs that the community had lobbied hard for, including the expansion of three existing magnet programs.

But the approval came with warnings that the 1998-99 budget process could be even worse than this year's protracted battle between school and municipal leaders and that some of the measures used to bring in this year's budget were not good fiscal policy.

While she described the solution presented as the best under the circumstances, board member Nancy Guy also said, ``I think we set some very dangerous fiscal precedents for our system.''

To close the gap between what school leaders have said they need and what city leaders allotted for the 1997-98 fiscal year, the division will use more than $5.4 million of an anticipated budget surplus for this year to pay for one-time costs in next year's budget - things like computer equipment and band uniforms.

Another $4.2 million will be trimmed across the board - such as reducing the amount of money allocated for substitutes. An additional $1.2 million will be saved by starting 1 percent of an employee raise on July 1, then adding a step increase of 3 percent for eligible employees on Oct. 1. The board indicated that the remaining $400,000 could be made up giving to the Virginia Retirement System over time rather than as a lump sum.

Guy cited the use of surplus money and the decision to increase estimates of federal impact aid earlier in the process as the type of measures that contributed to past financial problems in the division under previous leadership.

Bracing for next spring's budget deliberations, Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney suggested that the board consider studying such programs as middle school athletics and ``non-direct instructional services'' such as school nurses, psychologists and resource teachers.

The board also agreed to have Jenney address the salaries of those classified employees, such as plumbers or custodians, who are being paid below market rate by January, if the money becomes available.

In other action, the board approved the continuation of the intensified block schedule at Princess Anne High School for another year. The plan will be carefully evaluated during that time.

For the last two years, students at PA have gone to school on an unusual schedule that eliminates the lunch and study period so most of them are released at 12:30, 90 minutes earlier than most of the city's high schoolers.

More than a third of the students have taken an additional class known as fourth block, which moved their release time to 2:11. Other students have used the time for tutoring or one-on-one work with teachers, extra-curricular activities or an athletes' study hall.

The schedule, developed as a result of a fire that forced the school's relocation, has been extremely popular with students, staff and parents. They credit it with raising achievement and reducing disciplinary problems.

But board members had expressed concerns about PA students getting into trouble with the extra time on their hands, the cost of the schedule and other issues.

At Tuesday's board meeting, principal Patricia Griffin offered a letter from the police liaison administrator to the school, which said that while idle time would lead to trouble for some students, statistics showed that most were benefiting from the schedule.

The board also was told that one of the estimated costs associated with the shorter day was actually much smaller than anticipated.

As part of its approval, the board is requiring that the school come up with a remediation plan for underachieving students to be held during the fourth block and that a letter go to every parent at the school asking whether they want their child dismissed under the schedule's earlier release time or not. KEYWORDS: VIRGINIA BEACH SCHOOLS BUDGET

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