County's school board approves reduced budget
By Donna C. Gregory NEWS EDITOR

School board members took one more step toward finalizing their FY09 (effective July 1) budget last week by approving a draft that will be sent to the county for review. Superintendent Marcus Newsome is expected to formally present the budget to the county's board of supervisors on Mar. 10.

It's still uncertain how the final numbers will shake out, however, since the General Assembly is wrestling over whether the House of Delegates or Senate version of the state budget will be adopted. As approved, the school system's budget is based on the House version and totals $603 million. Newsome's original proposed budget amounted to $604.5 million, causing the school system to have about a $1.4 million shortfall. Part of that was caused by a reduction in county funding due to decreases in county revenue projections. The county is expected to give the school system $1.6 million less than originally anticipated.

Fortunately, making up the shortfall was made less painful due to a reduction in the rate the school system pays to the Virginia Retirement System for employees. That decrease in the contribution rate saved $1.6 million.

School administrators also found $328,700 in the budget through "technical adjustments." "Technical adjustments are some corrections that staff needed to make in the budget as proposed," explained Kathy Kitchen, assistant superintendent for business and finance.

Another $500,000 was deducted from the superintendent's "safety net funding," which pays for student remediation, intervention and prevention programming. "Funding will still remain in the budget, but at a reduced level," explained Kitchen.

The school system receives a large chunk of its funding from county taxpayers. Even after the General Assembly passes a state budget later this month, school officials won't have a final financial tally until the county passes its budget in April.

Following an average 11 percent increase in real estate assessments, some citizens are pressing the county board to reduce the property tax rate from 97 cents per $100 of assessed value. Each one penny reduction in the property tax rate would reduce school revenue by $2.2 million.

The FY09 cuts so far were minor, however, compared to what may come next year. Based on FY10 projections, the school system's compensation plan could be cut by $4.7 million to balance the budget. As a result, staff would only receive a 1.5 or 2 percent raise compared to 3 percent as previously planned.

The school system will learn in the coming days if the House or Senate version of the budget is adopted. If the Senate version wins out, additional cuts will have to be made for FY09.

Special education criticized again

Yet another angry parent blasted the school system last week for its special education programming. Alice Puricelli, a parent of a student at Curtis Elementary School, complained that her hearing-impaired son isn't getting the special education services he needs to succeed in reading.

Puricelli said she became so upset by the caliber of special education services at Curtis that she withdrew her son from the school and homeschooled him during his fourth-grade year after he allegedly made little-to-no progress in third-grade. Later testing showed that he made improvements in reading while being homeschooled, she reported. When he returned to Curtis for his fifth-grade year, Puricelli said school officials "disregarded testing and have kept on with the same methods used in the third-grade year."

She openly showed her disdain over the treatment of her son, calling the school's "lack of cooperation [and] lack of service…scandalous."

"You should be ashamed of yourself for letting this happen in your school system," Puricelli told school board members during the public comment period. "There's no accountability. I want you to be aware of this because my next step…is filing a complaint with the department of education…I hope like heck they pull your funding."

School board members sat silent as Puricelli finished her statement since they typically don't respond to speakers during public comment periods. Puricelli then railed at them for giving her "blank stares."

Newsome has referred Puricelli's concerns to special education administrators for further review. Curtis Elementary did not return our call for comment on this story.