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Trustees: $2.6 mil increase needed
Budget in flux, School Board votes to seek more local money
Halifax County school trustees agreed on a compromise spending plan last
night, one that asks for about $2.6 million more from the county but
doesn¹t
go as far as asking for the $4.1 million boost that some trustees had
hoped
for.
The budget request is subject to a public hearing on Feb. 29 and,
ultimately, approval by the Halifax County Board of Supervisors, which
has
indicated it wants absolutely no increase.
The spending plan worksheet calls for teacher and personnel pay hikes at
an
amount yet to be determined ‹presumably 4 to 7 percent ‹ plus $338,000
extra
in fuel costs for vehicles and heating, $218,000 extra for 10 new buses,
$123,500 extra for mandated special-ed teachers, and possibly $254,400
extra
to help offset health insurance premium hikes.
The full budget for 2008-09 has yet to be ironed out. With the State
Senate,
House and governor¹s budgets all at loggerheads, no solid figures are
yet in
sight.
³We know we¹re gonna lose some money² from the state, lamented School
Superintendent Paul Stapleton, saying he guessed between $300,000 and
$600,000.
The school administration¹s proposal had asked for $14.5 million from
the
county; new trustee Joe Gasperini¹s optional budget called for $17.3
million
with the major difference being heftier pay hikes for both teachers and
support staff.
Ultimately, the board voted 6-2 to ask for $15.9 million to split the
difference.
Chairman Steve Anderson and trustee D.H. McDowell voted against the
motion.
McDowell had, minutes earlier, motioned to put up a request for about
$1.6
million more from the supervisors in order to fund a 4 percent line-item
teacher salary hike, but the motion was amended in favor of Gasperini¹s
larger request.
Trustees spent some of their budget work session expounding, more or
less in
unison, on why the supervisors need to be more generous with schools
and
why taxpayers need not blame schools for their tax bills.
Gasperini said the county puts up only 25.58 percent of the school
system¹s
budget in actual local funding. Dr. Roger Long, another newcomer, chimed
in
that the state requires the county to put up 23.8 percent.
Gasperini continued his litany of complaints: that as state money to
schools
has increased, Halifax has contributed less; that land values are up
$800
million in the past six years; that local sales taxes are up $40
million.
³The county has more money coming in,² he said, ³yet the amount of money
going to the schools continues to go down.²
Walter Potts, yet another newcomer, focused on an estimated $6 million
one-time windfall the county will get as a result of switching to
twice-yearly tax bills ‹ and said the schools deserve a share.
Several members also suggested having a joint budget work session with
the
supervisors.
At press time, the trustees were also discussing whether to follow
through
on adding a personal finance class as a graduation requirement. The
trustees
approved the plan at a meeting last week, but McDowell voiced concerns
over
the cost and the speed at which it was implemented.
Ssd