ABINGDON, Va. – While the Washington County School Board made no final budget decisions Monday, the board did vote to allow 12 early retirements, which will save enough money to keep every county teacher on the payroll.
If all the money is applied toward salaries, along with money planned by the county to help the schools, $615,000 would still be needed to keep from laying anyone off. The school system is struggling with a $5.8 million budget shortfall driven primarily by state funding cuts.
A piece of that – more than $100,000 – could potentially be made up by the resignation of Assistant Superintendent Tom Graves, who said he is leaving May 1 to take a job as superintendent of a school system outside Charlotte, N.C.
“Gosh,” he said when asked about the impact his new job opportunity could have on budget woes here. “Everybody wins.”
If he is not replaced, that would bring the amount needed down to just over $500,000.
Superintendent Alan Lee said the board hasn’t decided yet where to apply the money – but certainly there has been a focus on keeping people employed – even if it means looking at relatively short-term consequences of budget difficulties.
“I think our board is willing to keep people employed a year at a time if that’s what it takes,” he said, noting that last year the budget situation looked worse than it now appears.
At Monday’s meeting, board members discussed several options for dealing with the remaining hole in the budget, from cutting salaries to requiring employees to pay their own contributions to the state retirement system to layoffs.
But school system officials said they will not make any decisions until they have final numbers on what the budget picture looks like.
“Everybody’s hopeful that something will happen at the last minute that will keep people from losing jobs,” said Pat Farmer, a board member for the Washington County Virginia Public School Education Foundation.
She presented an idea to the school board that she hopes will fill in the gap. It’s based on a simple calculation: If every Washington County family with a child in school contributes $25, the money raised will be enough to keep all the jobs and some other things as well. She said the organization is preparing to send out a letter to every parent in the county.
Donations received that way don’t include money that could be given by corporations, civic clubs and alumni to help fund the schools, she said.
The foundation’s money can’t go directly to jobs, she said, but it could help fund instructional needs, freeing up dollars to fill the rest of the hole in the budget.
To donate, checks should be made out to Washington County Education Foundation, 448 Cummings St.,
Box 216, Abingdon, Va., 24210. For information, e-mail WCVPSEF@gmail.com.
According to figures provided during Monday’s regular meeting, a total of 19 teachers and 16 support staff have been identified for potential layoffs to save more than $1.6 million as part of an effort to eliminate the $5.8 million budget shortfall.
dmccown@bristolnews.com | (276) 791-0701
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