Major cuts proposed in Va. Beach schools budget

VIRGINIA BEACH

Junior varsity sports, most summer school and hundreds of teachers and other employees would disappear from the city's schools next year under a $620.8 million budget the superintendent proposed Tuesday night.

Students would crowd into larger classes, and those in academy programs and the gifted elementary and middle schools would have to find their own transportation. Middle school teachers would lose planning time, and all employees would be furloughed without pay for three days.

Superintendent James Merrill called the cuts painful but said they can't be helped. Years of erosion in state and city education funding, he said, have left the schools no choice but to cut where it hurts.

"I have never had to advise a School Board and a community as a whole that quality public education in their city was in danger," he told board members. "Sadly, that is the message I must deliver now."

The schools are facing a $39.3 million shortfall for 2012-13 - a hole created by falling state and local funding, rising health care costs and the governor's decision to ask schools statewide to make major contributions to the retirement system next year, Merrill said. In Virginia Beach, that move would cost about $20 million.

It hasn't helped that the city has taken $41.4 million from the schools' reserve and year-end funds over the past three years, he said.

Merrill based his budget proposal on the money city officials have said they are planning to give schools.

Among the changes he's proposing are doing away with attendance incentives for bus drivers and custodians, and cutting some training funds for teachers and other employees. Some administrators and specialists would take a pay cut by working 11 months a year instead of 12.

Other changes would immediately affect teachers and students. His budget calls for eliminating nearly 400 positions, hopefully through attrition and early retirements. Field trip money would be cut by two-thirds. Shrinking the teaching staff would inflate class sizes, and the cuts to athletics would end competitions between middle schools.

Ending summer school courses - except those for graduating seniors and special education - would keep many students from getting ahead in the summer months.

Merrill did say one change would be good for students: switching high schools from their current yearlong course schedule to a block schedule of four courses a semester. That will save money and allow students to take more classes in high school, he said.

In his address, Merrill urged parents and others not to flood the board with emails and phone calls.

"The problem with that strategy is that it becomes, 'Every man for himself,' " he said. "It ignores the fact that to save your ox, somebody else's ox will get gored."

Instead, he said to take any complaints to state legislators, the governor and the City Council.

Relief could still arrive through those lawmakers. Board members can make changes to Merrill's proposal before sending it to the city, and council members can add or subtract school funding before passing their final budget.

Already, the city has found an additional $2.2 million for schools. With that money, and any more that could come through in the coming weeks, Merrill said he'd like to start an International Baccalaureate program at Green Run High School and give a 3 percent raise to all employees. The two items topped a list of seven priorities he gave to the board.

After the presentation, board Chairman Dan Edwards said he knew the budget would be bad but that it's worse than he thought.

"The first word that comes to my mind is devastating," said Bill Brunke, the board's vice chairman. "There's going to have to be some real soul-searching to see what the priorities are within the city."

Board member Carolyn Weems pointed parents and other school groups toward lawmakers.

"You have got to start talking to your legislators," she said. "A grassroots effort that you will not stand by and watch our school system go from great to mediocre just like that, when the last 10 and 15 and 20 years we've built it up so much."