City schools budget struggle continues

With one month left before the Charlottesville School Board is set to adopt its 2012-13 budget, questions about how to make up a multimillion-dollar shortfall still loomed Thursday.

Chief among those was whether the City Council might appropriate an additional $1.1 million to the schools or allow the division to use $1.5 million set aside for renovations associated with reconfiguration for general operating expenses instead.

With those questions left unanswered, the board considered a list of additional cuts totaling about $330,000 proposed by Superintendent Rosa S. Atkins. Those would come after about $1 million in cuts she has already proposed.

The majority of the savings, $190,000, on the newest list of cuts would come from eliminating an assistant principal position at Buford Middle School and another at Walker Upper Elementary School. Each school would be left with two assistant principals.

The suggestion gave most of the board members pause.

“The [assistant principal] positions worry me,” said board Chairman Ned Michie. “Buford worries me the most. It’s such a tough age and cutting back one there, I worry about doing that. If you leave one there, then there’s a fairness issue with Walker.”

Board member Leah Puryear said she would prefer to fund the positions this year to allow more time to deliberate and solicit community input before cutting them in subsequent years.

“If we eliminated them now, we’d be making that decision in a vacuum and I’m not comfortable with that,” she said.

Board member Willa Neale said she believes the schools should consider replacing the assistant principal positions with testing coordinators.

“It’s time to consider everything,” she said.

Atkins’ list also included reducing elementary assistant principal contracts by six weeks. She proposed shaving four weeks from contracts for assistant principals at Buford and Walker, as well as cutting two weeks from two counselors’ contracts.

Additional items on the list included reducing custodial overtime pay by $50,000 and raising tuition for non-resident students by $100, which would generate $19,000 in additional revenue.

“I’m comfortable with the custodial overtime and tuition increase,” Michie said.

Several board members expressed reservations about using the $1.6 million in one-time funds from the city, but said they plan to consider it.

“We’ve got some jobs that if we can even keep them for another year, we need to do it,” Neale said.

Finance Director Ed Gillaspie said he did not know when the schools would receive word on whether the City Council will release the $2.6 million requested.

If the schools receive those funds, the board will be facing a shortfall of about $1 million after using $330,000 in special revenue funds to pay for three educational intervention programs. Those programs are currently paid for with money from the schools’ general fund.

Atkins presented a list of cuts totaling about $1 million in a work session Saturday.

Those included eliminating three secretarial positions at Charlottesville High School and Buford Middle School, increasing class sizes in grades five through eight by one student and reducing the length of summer school.

She also proposed freezing the division’s science coordinator position, which is being vacated this year, and a technology position, while eliminating two instructional assistants at Walker and a preschool evaluator.

Key dates

Upcoming meetings related to next year’s budget for Charlottesville City Schools:

Feb. 9: PTO president’s lunch, Burnley-Moran Elementary, noon.
March 1: Approval of superintendent’s proposed budget, Charlottesville High School media center, 5 p.m.
March 5: Schools budget presentation to City Council, City Hall, 7 p.m.
April 10: City Council budget approval, City Hall, 5:30 p.m.