School Board Newsletter, April 9, 1998

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Subj: School Board Newsletter
Date: 98-04-09 17:13:25 EDT
From: James.C.Klagge@bev.net (James C. Klagge)
To: "school issues list"@vt.edu

Dear Friends,

1) As you may have read in the newspaper yesterday, the county supervisors voted 6-1 to increase taxes by 4 cents, from 72 to 76 cents per $100 assessed value of real property. And through certain arrangements, the school budget was not any smaller than it would have been with an 8 cent increase. This is a good result for us, and I would like to thank the supervisors for this decision (and hope you will, too). (Since they granted only a 1 cent tax increase my first year on the board, a 2 cent increase last year, and a 4 cent increase this year, I wonder if we are looking at a trend toward an 8 cent increase next year?!) (Nick Rush was the lone dissenting vote.)

The newspaper gave the impression that we got our full budget request, which is far from true. We got all of our budget request that the county administrator, Jeff Johnson, had included in HIS proposed budget. That is still $1.8 million less than we had requested. (And our request was some $3.6 million less than what we could have really used.) So this leaves us with some very difficult choices as to how to allocate a limited ($1.2 million) amount of new discretionary money between such needs as salary increases (about $400,000 per 1% salary increase), new teachers (about $40,000 per new position), new supplies, added field trip miles, special at-risk programs, new technology money, etc. Nevertheless, this is a workable budget for us, and I appreciate the contribution that our local government is making--at a time when we are getting relatively little ($952,000) new money from the state, nearly all of which is encumbered by designated programs.

As we are deliberating about how to allocate what new discretionary money we have, we appreciate any input you may have on where you think the priorities should be. Here, once again, are e-mail addresses for your convenience, but you can still feel free to contact me:

District A: Tine McPherson- tdmcp@bev.net
District B: Bernie Jortner- bjortner@vt.edu
District C: David McCrumb- dmccrumb@vt.edu
District D: Mary North- mhnorth@bev.net
District E: Michael Smith- msmith2@bev.net
District F: Jim Klagge- jklagge@bev.net
District G: Wat Hopkins- whopkins@vt.edu
Superintendent: Fred Morton- fmorton@bev.net

2) The BHS PTA is trying to reduce its expenses significantly by sending out its newsletter by e-mail to those who have e-mail (and continuing to mail it to the rest). This would save lots of money from printing and postage and seems like a great idea. It would leave room in their budget for other more valuable ways to spend money. If you are a BHS parent, PLEASE send your e-mail address to Heidi Bernard bernardh@bev.net. (Also let her know your child's name and year in school.)

3) With all the pressure for efficiency that we are getting in our medical system, and in our public schools and universities, I thought you would enjoy the following efficiency analysis that I just received by e-mail:

"Managed care at the Symphony"

A managed care company president was given a ticket for a performance of Schubert's "Unfinished Symphony." Since he was unable to go, he passed his invitation to one of his managed care reviewers. The next morning, the president asked the reviewer how he enjoyed it, and he was handed a memorandum which read as follows:

1. For a considerable period, the oboe players had nothing to do. Their number should be reduced, and their work spread over the whole orchestra, thus avoiding peaks of activity.

2. All 12 violins were playing identical notes. This seems unnecessary duplication and the staff for this section should be drastically cut. If a large volume of sound is required, this could be obtained through use of an amplifier.

3. Much effort was involved in playing the 16th notes. This seems excessive refinement, and it is recommended that all notes should be rounded up to the nearest 8th note. If this were done, it would be possible to use paraprofessionals instead of experienced musicians.

4. No useful purpose is served by repeating with horns the passage that has already been handled by the strings. If all such redundant passages were eliminated, the concert could be reduced from two hours to 20 minutes.

5. This symphony has two movements. If Schubert didn't achieve his musical goals by the end of the first movement, then he should have stopped then. The second movement is unnecessary and should be cut.

6. In light of the above, one can only conclude that had Schubert given more attention to these matters, his symphony would have probably been finished by now.

Hope you enjoy the Easter weekend,

Jim Klagge
District F Representative
School Board Chair.

email: admin@gisone.com