School Board shuffles funds to provide for building improvements; teacher position left vacant
The Rappahannock County School Board approved a transfer of $150,000 within its approved budget to provide money for expected repairs and improvements to buildings, eliminating a teacher position in the process.
School Superintendent Robert Chappell said Wednesday that the board approved the funds-shuffling at its Tuesday meeting, acting in line with a previous proposal made by two of its members comprising its Finance Committee.
The $150,000 was taken from instruction and transportation categories of the budget and transferred to the debt service category, in anticipation of the debt expected to be incurred by pending repairs and replacements of failing heating, cooling and other systems at the school buildings.
The largest savings, $78,916, will come from not replacing a teacher retiring after 42 years of service. That will eliminate a salary of $59,790, and additional employee costs of $19,126 for health insurance, retirement benefits and Federal payroll taxes. Another $46,084 in savings will result from a less-than-expected increase in health insurance premiums for covering school employees, and $25,000 shaved from a new bus purchase.
The budget changes approved by the School Board are the same outlined in a May 3 letter signed by Wes Mills, chairman, and Aline Johnson, vice-chairman, that was distributed on that date to members of the Board of Supervisors as they were meeting to consider whether to approve the budget by its bottom-line number of $11.6 million, or by category–which would have allowed the supervisors to shuffle funds among the categories.
The letter was an effort to head off approval by category, which would have given the Board of Supervisors more control over how school funds are spent. The effort to approve the budget by category failed on a 2-2 vote of the supervisors with Stonewall-Hawthorne District supervisor Chris Parrish abstaining from the vote.
Parrish then joined in supporting approval of the school budget by bottom line, providing the decisive vote.