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Subj: School Issues Newsletter #55
Date: 3/12/99 1:10:52 PM EST
From: jklagge@bev.net (Jim Klagge)
Dear Friends,
Hope you are enjoying the sun while it is here. In my last letter I accidentally put a "/" in place of a "." in the web-address where you could access the article I published about this newsletter in the SB Journal. (Thanks to several for pointing out a problem, and one for "solving" it.) The correct address is: Sorry for the confusion.
Budget: We presented our budget to the BoS finally on Tuesday night. (Weather had delayed earlier presentations.) The budget we presented is accessible on the school system web page at for your inspection. Perhaps the biggest ticket item are the salary increases we are requesting. Comparison of our salary scales with those of other systems in this region put us in a difficult position when it comes to recruiting and retaining good teachers. (And salary scales from other districts are a "moving target" since they increase their salary as well.) Although class size is important, and we have emphasized this over the last several years, especially at the elementary level, the quality of teachers is at least as important.
You may know that the reassessment of property values in the county produced an increase of over 25%. To keep the tax burden the same as last year, the county would have to reduce the current rate of 74 cents (per $100 assessed value) to 61 cents. They are in fact advertising for discussion purposes a decrease to only 70 cents. (The actual new tax rate cannot be any higher than this advertised rate, but it could be lower, depending on what they decide to do.) I am impressed that they are willing to consider this new tax rate, and they will need a lot of encouragement from tax payers to stick with that. (There is sure to be a lot of pressure to lower it even further, so that the effective tax increase is even smaller.) Though this advertised tax rate would not give us all that we have asked for in our budget request, it does constitute a significant effort to meet the needs of the school system.
Please contact your supervisor and express your views about this. (I have given contact addresses in past newsletters.) Or, even better, please show up in person and speak at the public hearing they will hold on the budget and tax rate at 7pm on March 23rd at Christiansburg HS.
BMS: As some of you know, the SB commissioned Rancorn & Wildman Architects to do an assessment and feasibility study for us of the needs, costs and possibilities involved in: building a new HS in Blacksburg, renovating the current BHS as a MS, and renovating the current BMS. We got their report this week, and will discuss it at our meeting on Tuesday at 7:30pm. (Directions to the SB office are on the web page cited above.) The report is very impressive and thorough. Copies of the report will be placed at the Christiansburg and Blacksburg Branch Public Libraries, and in the BHS and BMS school libraries for the public to see. I encourage you to read the report, and to attend the SB meeting on Tuesday.
The report estimates that a new HS for 1600 students would cost $36.5 to 37.5 million. The report offers 5 schemes for renovating BHS as a MS: Scheme A for 1200 students costs $7.8 to 8.3 million; scheme B for 1200 costs $7.9-8.4 million; scheme C for 720 students costs $4.9-5.4 million; scheme D for 720 students (the report I have has a typo here in the executive summary saying that scheme D is for 600 students) costs $6.2 to 6.7 million; and scheme E for 600 students costs $5.7 to 6.2 million. And the report offers 3 schemes for renovating the current BMS as a smaller MS: Scheme X for 480 students costs $6.8 to 7.3 million; scheme Y for 600 students costs $8.1 to 8.6 million; and scheme Z for 720 students costs $9.7 to 10.2 million. Schemes C, D & E leave varying amounts of extra space, in the current vocational wing of the current BHS, available for other uses. I won't at this time try to describe these various schemes, but they are worth looking at in detail. I hope this report will put us in a good position to make an informed judgement and recommendation to the BoS about the building situation at the secondary level in Blacksburg in the near future.
Charter Schools: At our last meeting we approved a set of criteria for evaluating applications for charter schools in the district. We will receive applications from now until June 1st for schools to begin July, 2000. We have set a processing fee of $750. In helping to evaluate applications our staff's time will be charged on an hourly basis, and if the charge comes to less than $750, the balance will be refunded. Anyone who is interested can receive a copy of the criteria and the relevant state law from the superintendent's office (382-5104) or the SB clerk (382-5138). To my knowledge no one has shown interest in applying to start a charter school in this county. But we felt that the process needed to be made available.
Thanks for your interest in education in Montgomery County,
Jim Klagge
Chair & District F Representative
Montgomery County School Board
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