Board faces tough choices tonight

Rhonda Simmons / Culpeper Star Exponent
Published: May 13, 2007

Pretty soon, teachers, staff and students at Culpeper County Public Schools may begin to feel the crunch of next year's financial adjustments.

The question is what will suffer the consequences, salary increases or school programs.

At tonight's School Board meeting, members likely will vote on whether to approve its revised operating budget for fiscal year 2008.

Prior to the recently adopted Board of Supervisors county budget, school officials had hoped for a $10 million increase in local funds.

But the supervisors' decision last month to allocate $3 million in new funds for the school system put school officials in quite a quandary.

This predicament left the School Board with the challenge of adjusting its financial priorities for the next school year.

And the cost of staffing and furnishing the county's two new schools - Eastern View High School and Yowell Elementary - will also need to be considered. Both schools are slated to open in the fall of 2008.

Construction Projects Manager Hunter Spencer told board members Thursday night that an estimated $1.8 million is still needed to fund soft costs for both schools.

At Thursday night's work session, school administrators brought various cost-saving options to the table.

Instead of hiring the initial 45 people to open and operate the two new schools, CCPS Executive Director of Finance Jeff Shomo suggested employing a planning principal for Eastern View a year early and filling three half-year positions.

That adjustment would save $672,637, according to Shomo's calculations.

He also recommended some energy savings ideas such as operating a four-day summer school, setting back the temperature in all buildings at least four degrees and implementing a 30-minute shorter heating and cooling period year round.

That modification would salvage $296,803, he said.
Another cost saving idea was to charge an athletic fee of $60 to parents with children participating in a sport. This fee would be specific to the program and parents would only be charged once, no matter how many sports their child takes part in.

Also to cut costs, administrators recommended reducing some Career and Technical department materials and supplies.
CCPS Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Eric Conti, says the only affected programs would be electives if board members decided to choose that option.

All core classes like history, English and math have to be offered while some Advanced Placement courses may be up in the air at the new school. So far, CCHS programs will not be affected.

"I would venture to say that next year it's not just career and technical," said Chairwoman Elizabeth Hutchins. "I think we are going to be looking at reducing our language opportunities, reducing AP courses in order to get the basics for our kids. I think there's a lot of programs that will take a hit next year."

The last option the board heard was reducing the amount of raises for staff and teachers. Initially, teachers were to receive an average of an 8.13 percent increase. The board heard three salary reducing alternatives:

- Option one: Start new teachers at $38,000 while keeping the average 8.13 percent increase for all other teachers and shrinking the rest of the employees' raises 10 percent.

- Option two: Reduce salary increases 10 percent and start new teachers at $37,800 while the rest of the teachers receive a five percent increase next year.

- Option three: Start new teachers at $37,900 and reduce the staff's salary increase five percent while giving teachers an 8.01 percent raise.

According to Shomo's numbers, option one saves $129,285, option two falls $252,407, while option three saves $121,122.

Superintendent David Cox stressed that those salary increases are not top of the market.

Board members will also vote on whether to:

- Ask town officials to assist with off-site expenses for Yowell Elementary School

- Charge an ad hoc committee

- Implement elementary school uniforms for the 2008-09 school year

- Approve the Yowell Elementary School contract.

 Rhonda Simmons can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 125 or .

Your tax money at work

Below is a list of school employee salaries as shown in the fiscal 2007 and proposed 2008 Culpeper County Public School budgets.

Fiscal year 2007 salaries
Teachers (557)  $24,239,534
Speech Therapists (5) 245,731
Psychologists (5) 212,223
ROTC (2) 129,569
Elementary school principals (5) 387,320 
Middle school principals (2) 185,858
High school principals (1)  93,000
Asst. elem. school principals (6) 391,778
Asst. middle school principals (4) 271,639
Asst. high school principals (5) 351,851
Classified  (secretaries, et al) 8,652,938
Administrative 1,683,616
 
 Total: $36,845,057

Proposed 2008 salaries
Teachers (557) $26,209,494
Speech Therapists (5) 255,560
Psychologists (5) 252,518
ROTC (2) 134,752
Elementary school principals (5) 412,320
Middle school principals (2) 197,858
High school principals (1)  100,000
Asst. elem. school principals (6) 409,778
Asst. middle school principals (4) 283,639
Asst. high school principals (5) 376,851
Classified  9,122,767
Administrative 1,811,265
 
 Total: $39,566,802

School Board members will consider the proposed 2008 budget at 7 p.m. today at 302 N. Main St. The meeting is open to the public.