Albemarle looks for leaner, meaner school division

No teacher pay increases. A budget that’s $2.2 million slimmer. And reductions in staff.
Those were the main components of Superintendent Pamela Moran’s funding request for the 2009-10 school year.
In years past, Communications Coordinator Maury Brown said, funding requests have been based on school needs, but this year’s requests had to be “reality based.”
This fiscal year’s school budget is $151.3 million. The fiscal 2010 schools budget would be $149.1 million under Moran’s request.
Moran’s funding request holds classrooms harmless. There would be no increase in class size. The school division, however, would increase incentives for employees near retirement age to retire early.

Moran said that the package wouldn’t force employees out, but would provide incentives for those who want to retire early, which would open up the positions for new employees with a lower pay rate.
Investments in building services would still be funded, Moran said, adding that failing to maintain buildings now will be more costly in the future. 
Officials this month projected that Albemarle County would face a $7.2 million shortfall, up from an earlier estimate of $4.9 million. News from the governor’s office that the Virginia could face a $2.9 billion shortfall in the biennium budget only complicates the situation.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine released an estimate Wednesday that the state will provide $45.6 million in funding to Albemarle schools in fiscal 2010, down from the $47.3 million it expects to give Albemarle schools this fiscal year.
Moran said that she didn’t have time to adjust the funding request to account for Kaine’s announcement, but said that staff would read through the details of the state’s funding projections. 

School Board Chairman Brian Wheeler said in an interview last week that Albemarle schools will not be able to give employees, including teachers, pay increases next school year.
“All the news we’re getting is things are getting worse. So, in the absence of any goods news, I don’t see how that’s going to change,” Wheeler said. “If we were getting signals, for example, from the governor or from the General Assembly that they’ve found some silver bullet to this budget challenge, then I might think ‘OK, maybe we can pull something off.’”
Localities are facing “a funding crisis,” he said.
Moran said her request is designed to affect classrooms as little as possible, while increasing efficiency.
Wheeler said Albemarle is being forced to increase efficiency, which will ultimately mean a better school division once it comes out of the economic downfall.

“Because of the pressures to balance the budget, we’re going to have to make some tough decisions,” he said, adding that he liked what he initially saw in Moran’s request.
“She’s convinced that she can do more with less,” Wheeler said. “It is smaller, but I think it’s leaner and meaner.”
Before detailing funding requests to the Albemarle School Board to make up for declining revenue, Moran asked members of the audience to raise their hands if they had parents or grandparents who’ve lived through the Great Depression. About two dozen people raised their hands.
Moran said that while the economic situation isn’t as bad as the Great Depression, it’s about the greatest challenge the nation, Virginia and Albemarle have had to face since.
Throughout January, the School Board will have budget work sessions and a public hearing. The School Board is expected by Jan. 29 to finalize a request, which will be sent to the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. The Board of Supervisors plans set the tax rate and adopt its fiscal 2010 budget on April 8.

This article was edited for clarity