No preliminary numbers in first school budget committee meeting
School board members listen intently to Dr. Tony Brads explain the 2013-14 budget prep.
Unknown. For the first time in the 9 years of covering school budget meetings at the school board office, there were no preliminary numbers presented in the first school budget committee for the 2013-14 budget. All five school board members, Ruth Wallace, Kathy Sullivan, John Alderson, Michael Beahm and Scott Swortzel were present.
Dr. Tony Brads began the first school budget committee meeting with a no numbers approach and a listing from the code of Virginia. Va 22.1-9 which states that it is the duty of the school superintendent of every school division to prepare with the approval of the school board a budget to send to the county by April 1. The scenario on the state and local level is so tenuous that the school division is not willing to estimate at this time what the money will be. Though Brads and his team including Brenda Bartee, Sam Foster and Dr. Brian Austin have a preliminary set of numbers for what it will cost to run the school division in 2013-14, the unknowns at this time are too hard to speculate where funding is concerned.
The “Team Botetourt” concept of previous years is not as apparent on the county side as in previous years. With almost flat growth and burgeoning costs to provide paid fire and rescue and a focus on tourism and the sports complex, the schools have dimmed in some of the first strategic planning dialogue in 10 years currently taking place on the supervisor level. The state is proposing a pay raise for SOQ funded positions only, enrollment funding is declining, and federal jobs money is drying up. In a nutshell, there is less money to go around.
Brads covered the budget narrative concisely. While the students of Botetourt are the most important and the education there of, the largest cost is personnel. “We want to remain a premiere school division,” said Brads. He spoke of a pay raise but did not know if it is doable. Other components of the Budget narrative include instructional programming, technology, facilities and operations and support. The proposed STEM Academy at Greenfield Education and Training Center is one of the instructional programs on the planning horizon.
Healthcare for the Division for the first time could top 6 million dollars due to the new health care reform. The schools pay the single provider and there is 87% participation. School retirees on the plan pay the full premium of insurance. Virginia Retirement Service (VRS) continues to be an issue. The schools elected to phase in the five year rate last year. Substitute pay is much less than neighboring divisions according to Jill Green the division HR. The retiree service plan is filling some spots, but may have to be revisited as well.
Lack of wireless infrastructure and white boards for every class room inhibits technology progress as an education tool in a world that is increasingly held in the hands of not only students but workers. “We can use the textbook fund for e readers, but not for infrastructure,” said Brads. In most schools the library and administration areas are the only wireless areas limiting access in class rooms.
Capital improvements like the LBHS roof, a new school in Blue Ridge, the CIP fund, lower enrollment and state funds, lunch prices and school bus replacement are on the laundry list that are not wants but needs and concerns. The next meeting is scheduled for Feb. 28 when Brads said, “Hopefully more numbers will be available.”
January 25, 2013 - 10:16 AM
Ugh here we go again. Brads and crew making up excuses for giving people there steps. I teacher at botetourt that has been there for several years is still getting paid what a new teacher out of school would get paid. Something about that doesn’t sound right. Good teachers have to go to other districts to get there steps and make more money.
To be fair, I think the Administration would like to give pay raises. I could write 10,000 words (but space does not allow) about what goes on in these meetings but I can assure you from what was said that day, the administration would love to have a raise for all of the teachers in Botetourt. The state has cut back, the county is looking at revenue shortfalls and it all boils down to money. School boards cannot raise funds, so the two big funding sources are the state and local governments with some funds coming on the federal side. It is a hard situation no matter what side of the table you are on.
School choice would make things happen for Botetourt and the sounding counties. Vouchers would help get rid of the bad teachers and keep the good. If your school is not preforming then it gets shut down. Competition is good. The Tax payers are paying for the salaries of these teachers. It’s time to preform at the highest level or you are gone. Look at the retirement and benefit packages the top level school administrator get. If we cut those benefits then there would be money to give raises to the ones that really deserve it, the teachers.. I believe the biggest problems with the public schools is what they are teaching. Look at the last two generations of youth in the US today. I think the Botetourt technical center is such an asset to the community Job Well done for that progress. We must teach our youth about trades. It is harder and harder to find skilled workers. My thought has always been to get the elderly involved with the schools they have so so so much to teach the generations of today or put the draft back in and stop contracting service out to companies. The one and only thing that is most important is LOVE of country. Go back to teaching people about trades and the basics. When all the technology crashes we need to have people know how to do things like they did 20 years ago.
Botetourt passed state tests with flying colors. Teachers here are doing their jobs because the tests definitely reflect that. We do have one of the best Technical schools around the state. I have to ask if you have been reading the many stories about the many school events and awards they have received as well as the Botetourt students in the Botetourt View? From a personal view point two of my children are at Virginia Tech, a huge and well respected University, and they came from a small school division in SW Virginia not NOVA or Tidewater or Richmond. They have done very well due to their hardwork and the K-12 education received here in Botetourt County Public Schools. And I could name 100′s of others I have known who left this division and have done the same or better at schools around the state and beyond. Vouchers sound good to people who live in failing school districts. Parents tend to make all the difference in the world in the way their children view being educated. No money is no money and blaming the administrators for being an administrator is a bit narrow in view. Some one has to Captain the ship and all of those programs that go along with it while teachers teach.