School Board Newsletter, January 21, 1998

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Subj: School Board Newsletter
Date: 98-01-21 11:11:20 EST
From: James.C.Klagge@bev.net (James C. Klagge)
To: "School issues list"@vt.edu

Dear Friends,

At our first meeting in January, I was elected chair of the school board, and Wat Hopkins was elected vice chair. That pretty much explains why you haven't heard from me in a while. But I still intend to keep up this newsletter, which many people seem to find helpful. As always I'm happy to delete you from the list if it doesn't serve your interests, and add others to the list if you pass along their names.

I. Budget. As always our Januaries are consumed by budget deliberations. (Tonight will be our 5th meeting this month!) We have been considering a budget request generated by the administration. By tonight we will have modified it in whatever ways we deem appropriate, and will present it for a public hearing on Tuesday, Jan. 27th at 7pm at Falling Branch Elementary school. (The road to Falling Branch is basically across the street from Hills--where the sign for the Star Light Drive-in is.) After getting public input, we will make any further modifications we deem appropriate, and then forward our budget proposal to the Board of Supervisors. They are the ones who have the power of the purse, and will determine what our budget eventually is.

At this point we are expecting to get less than $1 million in new money from the state, largely because Montgomery county's "local composite index" has increased. That means that relative to other localities, the state thinks we are more able to generate local revenue than we were in the past. (Let's tell that to the supervisors!) Unfortunately, without any tax increases the county government is forecasting only $1.6 million in new revenue this year, of which they are skimming $.6 million off the top for a reserve fund, leaving only about $1 million in expected new usable revenue. (These figures assume the county will not lose any money from the car tax relief.) Each penny of additional local property tax rate would generate about $250,000 in new revenue. (A penny of property tax rate means 1 penny/$100 of assessed property value. So if you own a $100,000 house, a penny increase in property tax rate would cost you $10/year.)

II. The Bully Pulpit. I've gained a bit of humility from being on the board as to how much the board can accomplish. So far the example of academic challenge has been one lesson. While I am not at all giving up on pushing forward with this issue, I think one important influence the board can have is by setting a tone for the school system. I hope the fact that the board has shown concern about an issue leads to adjustments and renewed emphases within the system. Furthermore, I hope the board chair can also have that sort of influence as a leader in the system. If you've been receiving these mailings for a while, you know the things that I care about. I'm willing to come and speak to groups--either connected with the schools or not: PTA's, faculties, classes, committees, community clubs, etc. Though my schedule is alreay very full, these are the kinds of things I would like to make room for in my schedule.

At our Feb. 3rd board meeting we will be setting aside time to talk about what things are important to each of the board members to try to accomplish. This will then form some material for us to work with at our board retreat on Feb. 20-21. I hope this intentional and public goal-setting can itself move the system, in addition to whatever ways we find institutionally to try to further these goals. If you have thoughts about where you think the schools should be moving, please contact me or your own board representative.

Here are our e-mail addresses:
Tina McPherson- District A- tdmcp@bev.net
Bernie Jortner- District B- bjortner@vt.edu
Wat Hopkins- Vice Chair & District G- whopkins@vt.edu
Michael Smith- District E- msmith2@bev.net
David McCrumb- District C- dmccrumb@vt.edu
Mary North- District D- mhnorth@bev.net
Jim Klagge- Chair & District F- jklagge@bev.net
The Superintendent is Fred Morton- fmorton@bev.net
(You can call 382-5741 to find out which district you live in, if you don't know.)

Also the board has time for public comments pertaining to education at the first meeting of each month (on the first Tuesday of each month) at 7:30pm. We ordinarily meet in the school board office in Christiansburg. Look forward to seeing you there sometime.

Jim Klagge
School Board Member
District F.

email: admin@gisone.com