School board stands pat on proposed $12.3 million budget, asking $494,968 more in county funds
The Rappahannock County School board took final action on its proposed $12.3 million budget for the coming year Tuesday morning, passing it on to the county Board of Supervisors without any further cuts in overall spending.
The only change made from the budget that was subject to a public hearing last week was a shifting of $5,000 within the budget–providing $5,000 more to the Next Step program, and asking School Superintendent Robert Chappell to find an offsetting savings of $5,000 within the budget category of teacher’s professional improvement.
The net result was no change from the board’s proposal prior to the public hearing, at which the board heard conflicting advice from about two dozen citizens–some pleading for more money for the schools, others protesting high taxes and asking the board to find more savings in the proposed 2007-2008 school spending plan.
The board last week decided to hold a final work session on the budget this morning, to allow time to consider what they had heard from the public at the formal hearing. Their decision to stick with the budget they presented to that hearing–with the one change to boost the Next Step program–passes the political hot potato to the county supervisors, who have the final say on the budget.
At the work session, board member Aline Johnson of Piedmont District made the motion to “leave as is” the overall budget, which asks for $8,473,357 in county funds, an increase of $494,968 or 6.2% from the current year’s budget. Total spending, including federal and state aid and other sources of revenue, would be $12,281,902, an increase of about 4.7% from the current year.
Johnson’s motion proposed a $15,000 county contribution to the Next Step program, which helps students prepare for and apply to colleges or other post-secondary education. That would be triple the $5,000 for Next Step in the current budget, and is the same amount originally proposed by the Superintendent for 2007-2008. The board had tentatively decided to provide $10,000 for Next Step, but in effect reversed itself Tuesday by restoring the figure to $15,000.
To offset that $5,000 increase for Next Step, board member Wesley Mills of Jackson District proposed eliminating an annual trip to Oxford, England, that certain selected teachers take to attend an educational conference there, which he said would save about $5,000. “I question whether it is necessary, or just nice,” Mills commented. “It’s a nice thing, but it’s not essential. Next Step is child-focused, and this is teacher-focused,” he said, adding that he supported the $5,000 extra for Next Step.
Rather than targeting the Oxford trip for cuts, board member Rosa Crocker of Wakefield District proposed letting the school superintendent decide where to find the needed $5,000 in savings to offset the Next Step increase. The motion adopted unanimously asks the superintendent to find those savings within the $33,000 line item for “professional improvement,” which would reduce that category to $28,000.
Board members and Superintendent Chappell noted in their discussion that the Board of Supervisors could require further savings when they review the schools budget. “It’s not over yet,” Board Chairman Ken Marlor remarked after the school board took its final vote.
At the meeting, Chappell distributed the first draft of a new “RCPS Facts 4U” newsletter that he plans to issue periodically to answer citizens’ questions and to provide the public more information on the schools. This first issue provides responses to some of the questions asked by citizens at last week’s public hearing, which went unanswered at the time.
Information in the first “Facts 4U” draft includes the following:
Per-pupil spending: Expenditures per student in Rappahannock County schools “will exceed $11,000″ if the proposed budget is approved. A more precise figure can’t be calculated now, Chappell told the board. For the current school year, per-pupil expenditures are $10,890.
Football spending: In the current fiscal year, county spending on the schools’ football programs is budgeted at $16,059. This includes “coaching stipends” for three Varsity and three JV football coaches costing $13,559, and $2,500 for “refurbishing helmets.” Other expenses of the football program, which some county residents want to eliminate, are covered by gate receipts and contributions of the Rappahannock County School Sports Association.
Special Education: As of last December, 132 students were enrolled in Special Education, or about 13% of the county’s total students.
Dropout Rate: Based on Virginia Department of Education reports, Rappahannock public schools have “the third lowest dropout rate in the state” for 2005-06, at 0.19%.
Pupil-Teacher Ratio: According to Department of Education records, the most recent calculation of the pupil-to-teacher ratio is for the 2004-05 school year, when Rappahannock County showed a ratio of 11.8 students per teacher for grades K through 7, and a ratio of 10.4 students per teacher for grades 8 through 12.
However, Chappell took issue with those statistics. He told the board that he feels the state statics “do not give a true picture” of class sizes in what he called “core classes” such as English, Math and Science. “The state’s calculation includes as teachers some personnel who do not have classroom groups assigned. For example, the state includes librarians and guidance counselors in the formula. The state also includes electives, some of whom have smaller class sizes,” Chappel said.
Therefore, he said his staff had calculated an alternative set of ratios for the 2006-2007 school year, limited to “core” classes. He listed these pupil-teacher ratios for the high school as: English, 17.2; Math, 16.6; Science, 18.4, and Social Studies, 18.5. In the elementary schools’ core classes, the ratio is 18.3, according to this calculation.
-- James P. Gannon
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