Board of Supervisors appropriates funds

By Nate Delesline III

Published: May 13, 2008

The Board of Supervisors this morning took the last step in bringing the county’s budget season to a close, appropriating funding for schools, county departments and about 35 outside agencies.

For the 2008-2009 fiscal year, which begins July 1, Culpeper County will operate on a $138.9 million budget. Of that, $72.1 million will fund the schools.

The school’s operating budget excludes the self-sufficient food service department. With food service, the overall budget totals $75.2 million.

“We’ve carefully considered all the cuts we’ve had to make and all the way through that proc-ess, we kept our goals in front of us of what we we’re trying to accomplish and we have a budget that’ll let us do that,” said School Board Chairman George Dasher.

The supervisors were set to make the appropriations at their May 6 monthly meeting. However, they decided to postpone that task until today, allowing the School Board a chance for last-minute changes at a Monday night meeting.

Yowell Elementary and Eastern View High School, both expected to open this fall, will add two new staffs to pay and about 300,000 more square feet of space to maintain, Dasher said. Opening and fully staffing both schools was a key goal throughout the budgeting process and Dasher ex-pressed satisfaction at meeting it, despite the budget wrangling and cutting.

“I wouldn’t say that it’s comfortable, but we’ll be able to keep both schools in our plan,” Dasher said.

Look for full coverage in Wednesday’s Star-Exponent.