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$1 million in budget cuts handed back to school staff to figure out
By Cynthia B. Coleman • Staff writer
HOT SPRINGS - The Bath school board met Monday, May 4 to ponder the question of how to cut more than $1 million from the $10.8 million budget they originally proposed for next year. Because the supervisors have not yet decided which health insurance plan they will accept, the school board could not make any final decisions. But board members all hope a raise can be given to all staff. "It is not a lost cause, yet," said member Marjorie Hevener.
Superintendent Dr. David Smith urged the board to go through several charts, requesting they review them line by line. But phone calls and visits the board received from citizens won over any actions.
Members Barbara Waldeck and Dreama Burns had both heard from one person upset by the possibility of losing junior varsity sports, as proposed earlier by Smith. This person told both board members they were "so extremely distraught" at the thought that their family was ready to put their house up for sale and move out of the county.
Hevener worried if JV sports were eliminated, varsity sports would soon follow.
Board chairman Eddie Ryder asked the board to look at all sports, not just JV, since the numbers participating in all school sports have been "spiraling down" for a number of years.
Ryder also asked the board to look beyond the phone calls they were receiving because many parents "are not aware at the predicament with this budget," and the cuts in programs it would require, he said.
Hevener requested that teachers, principals and school board staff be involved in working on the budget so they would not be surprised by cuts in staff and programs.
Discussion arose over kindergarten programs at both elementary schools. Waldeck read aloud a suggestion she received of combining kindergarten with pre-school thereby eliminating one of the teaching positions the current budget requires. In this plan, Millboro children in pre-school and kindergarten would catch the bus to Valley Elementary School at Windy Cove Presbyterian Church, which is already a bus stop and student exchange.
Burns was not against that idea, but requested more information, such as how far the children might be traveling. The board realized a decision on this idea could not be made until the number of students is tallied in August.
Waldeck suggested reducing the number of librarians, since that would not impact classroom instruction. Her idea was to combine the services of the two elementary librarians and keep the librarian at the high school, cutting the number of librarians from three to two.
Smith relayed statistical information about the enroll- ment requirements for librarian positions and said the schools could implement Waldecks' suggestion. "That may be an idea to look at," he said.
Other ideas were discussed for reducing costs or positions, but none came to fruition.
When the room erupted into discussion, Ryder rapped his gavel several times. "I think what we should do," he said, "is to ask the superintendent and staff to come back with some scenarios in how this budget can be put together, in how it works and how it will work across the system for all the students and staff. I feel that as a board, we are going to hold those folks accountable for whatever the outcome will be. And if we make a lot of decisions ourselves it will make it a little tough to hold those folks accountable … We could sit here all night, but at this point I don't think anyone's come up with anything that's going to be earth shattering as far as not affecting the system. I think what we as a board need to do at this point - we need to have our staff and administrators come back with figures that best affect our students.
"Dr. Smith," Ryder said, "can you do this?"
"Yes, sir," Smith replied. "I would like to make a suggestion. If we look back at the attachments … to look at scenarios to achieve those cuts in staff."
As a way to reduce costs, Smith asked the board members if they were ready to made a decision about cutting JV sports. Hevener said she was not ready to take action but was willing to look at each JV sport's participation before cutting programs. No other board member was ready to move on the matter.
Smith explained that according to Virginia law, teachers leaving from a reduction in force need to be notified within two weeks of the budget's appropriation, which would be May 14.
Ryder asked Smith if his staff could make the staff cut recommendations in time for the regular meeting held Tuesday.
Smith asked one last time if the board want to factor in any changes to the budget categories, but the board wanted the administrative staff to work on it instead.
By the time the board reconvened Tuesday, citizens were prepared to express their concerns about possible teacher and programming cuts.
While most were concerned with the deep cuts in the school budget, Tammy Jones of Goshen spoke for a group wanting more Goshen students at MES, with a bus stop at the library in Goshen.
But the board did not discuss the budget Tuesday. Members will hold a work session Thursday night at 6:30 p.m. at MES.
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