Officials with Halifax County Schools learned late last week they will receive slightly more in state funds for operations than they did last year. "We came out slightly better than we did with the Governor's projections," said Finance Director Bill Covington yesterday, noting that local contributions to VRS (Virginia Retirement System) were a little less than those required last year. Covington said he expects Halifax County to get $41,273,771 from the

state for the coming year's budget as compared with the $39,743,512 received last year. The system had requested $41,408,923 in state funds for the coming budget year. However, this year's additional $1.5 million will be hard pressed to cover fuel and gas increases, as well as expected health care increases, Covington said. (It will be July before the school system knows exactly what health care costs will be.) In house projections show the increased cost of vehicle fuel reaching $486,088 more than this year, while heating fuel is expected to increase by $162,000. Health care costs are expected to rise by $254,388, "I feel school trustees will make every effort to try to give our

teachers a three percent increase," Covington said. Doing so, however, is not likely to improve the County's competitive low ranking for teacher salaries since some neighboring communities are offering teacher increases of four to five percent. An addition of two special education teachers, mandated by the state, will cost another $123,485 according to school projections, leaving less than a half million dollars in state money for salary increases.