School Board keeps Wheeler as head, forwards project request to county

The Albemarle School Board on Thursday chose Brian Wheeler to remain its chairman, while Ronnie Price Sr. was selected as vice chairman.

Diantha McKeel, the former vice chairwoman, nominated Price.

The board also forwarded a request to the Board of Supervisors to approve $800,000 worth of new renovations at Brownsville Elementary School, including lighting enhancements and improvements to bathrooms and classrooms built in the 1960s.

Pamela Moynihan was the only board member who voted against the request. She questioned if officials were adding the renovations only because there was money leftover from other renovations at the school, and she asked why officials hadn’t included the renovations in the original proposal if they were necessary.

The renovations would follow on the construction of 30,000 square feet of additions at Brownsville, including a new gym, an expanded area for cafeteria seating, 10 classrooms, four resource rooms, five offices and a faculty workroom. The existing main office is also being renovated. The winning bid for the construction was $6.7 million, about $1.5 million below budget.

The School Board on Thursday also began examining Super-intendent Pamela Moran’s $149.1 million funding request for the 2009-10 school year. Moran’s request is based on an assumption that the Board of Supervisors will set the real-estate tax rate at 77 cents, with 2.5 cents being set aside for a safety net in case of economic woes.

Moran’s request includes no teacher pay increases and reductions in staff as part of a budget that’s $2.2 million slimmer than the current spending plan. The proposal, however, maintains the current student-teacher ratio.

This fiscal year’s schools budget is $151.3 million.

The School Board authorized one of Moran’s requests Thursday, creating a one-time expansion of the school division’s early retirement incentive program.

The move aims to save money by reducing the number of senior school system employees.

The board will have budget work sessions throughout January, followed by a public hearing. The School Board is expected to finalize a request by Jan. 29.

The county Board of Supervisors will then consider the request. It plans to set the tax rate and adopt its fiscal 2010 budget on April 8.