Schools pitch budget to city

Lynchburg City Schools officials presented the division’s proposed budget to City Council on Tuesday, when education officials fielded questions and explained that adequate funding is linked to student achievement.

“I think we’re doing a very good job of achievement and we cannot do it without the funding you give us,” Superintendent Paul McKendrick said to council.

McKendrick, along with School Board Chairwoman Julie Doyle and Chief Financial Officer Beverly Padgett, gave a PowerPoint presentation that lasted more than an hour and detailed budget requests and student achievement.

Padgett said the division’s approximately $89 million budget was crafted using figures from Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s original December budget proposal.

She said Tuesday the division had not received updated and exact figures from the state. Even though lawmakers in Richmond came to a budget consensus, Padgett said, specific dollar figures haven’t materialized for localities.

“We’re anxiously awaiting the final numbers,” she said during the afternoon work session.

At Tuesday evening’s school board meeting, Padgett reported that a quick check of the Virginia Department of Education’s Web site between meetings again yielded no new budget figures.

No matter what state budget figures show, city school officials were confronted with the reality of less money during Tuesday’s work session. While City Council is still ironing out the city budget, the initial proposal released March 11 has the city schools receiving half a million dollars less than they requested.

Big-ticket budget items were questioned and explained during the work session.

Personnel costs, which make up more than half of the city schools’ expenditures, were a talking point. Padgett said it is crucial the division maintain its

systematic compensation plan, which was put in place last year.

In keeping with the plan, employees are slated to receive a 4 percent raise. McKendrick said competitive teaching salaries are critical to getting and keeping the best teachers.

“They’re going where the bucks are,” he said of new hires fresh out of school.

Also during the meeting, per-pupil spending became a source of contention when Ward III Councilman Jeff Helgeson questioned how much was being spent per pupil and requested additional information on the increase in funding.

“It’s a tight year, it’s a tight time,” he said,

School officials countered by explaining the division’s proposed budget calls for only a 1.15 percent increase in city funds over what it received last year.

School leaders also explained several of the division’s proposed program initiatives, which would cost a total of $774,000.

When asked by Ward II Councilman Ceasor Johnson if there was a proposal he could not live without, McKendrick said it would be the Skillful Teacher trainers. The proposed school division budget has two Skillful Teacher trainers at a cost of $125,000. The Skillful Teacher program focuses on staff development and teaching skills to staff to create better teaching and learning environments.

Also under the proposed program initiatives are two high school testing coordinators for $125,000 and a math specialist for $65,000.

“Math has been, no question, a setback at the middle school level in recent years,” Doyle said.

At-Large Councilman Scott Garrett questioned how one specialist could help all students struggling in math.

“You have to train your teachers,” McKendrick said. “A math specialist wouldn’t be working with each student.”

Garrett asked school officials to report back the number of middle school math teachers that would work with a trainer.

Other council members also requested additional information, including specific figures on special education funding and the city schools fund balance from the fiscal year that ended in June 30, 2007.

City leadership will meet again to discuss city finances in a budget work session March 25.