The Virginian-Pilot
©
RICHMOND
The chair of the Virginia Beach School Board appealed this morning to the region’s legislators to help with a roughly $40 million budget shortfall.
Board chair Dan Edwards, addressing the Hampton Roads Caucus, asked for greater state funding for education and asked legislators to consider phasing in Gov. Bob McDonnell’s decision requiring schools to make major contributions to the state’s retirement system. That move will cost the division about $20 million, a blow that would be softened if implemented over three or four years, Edwards said.
“We have a $40 million cliff we’re falling off next year,” he said. “We’re having to do a lot of very devastating things to our budget.”
The school board announced the shortfall to its $620.8 million budget Tuesday and has received enormous outcry, Edwards said. Among the proposed cuts are middle school sports and transportation to citywide academies.
“The fallout is obvious,” he said. “Our emails are full. We need help.”
Representatives from Chesapeake schools, Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters, the Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital and the aerospace programs in Hampton and at Wallops Island also addressed the delegation this morning, asking for support.
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School and city budgets
Much of the budget problem is due to the need to repay the money the legislature took from the state pension systems ( teachers, police, other employees). It wasn't the first time, so the systems are not as adequately funded as they should be. To help make sure the systems are properly funded, require all members to pay into the system (in the old days,everyone paid 5% but gradually the state, towns and cities started picking up the employee share). the employee share can be phased in, 2.5% starting July 2012, then 5% in July 2013. Also, current retirees could forgo cost of living increases for two years. That would maybe avoid layoffs. Fair? no, but the legislature won't do the right thing and raise revenue to pay what they owe.
Just this week at Lynnhaven
Just this week at Lynnhaven Middle School, two fights broke out between two sets of girls. One occurred in an overcrowded classroom in which the students are saying the teacher left the kids unattended. One student was hurt so bad that she left in an ambulance. Lynnhaven middle school is supposed to be a good school district. It is out of control in that school. It has been one thing after another this year, fights and drug busts. unk. who has control or who is running the school, but changes need to be made now and fast. This is just the beginning. When you start to cut budgets even further these types of incidents will become daily occurrences. Wake up Virginia Beach - is this what we want our city to be known for????
Election day is Nov. 6,
Election day is Nov. 6, 2012.....re-elect someone new for every position that is available....let's make a fresh start and change the group that is sitting in there now.
How about the board members
How about the board members including Dan, volunteer their services for a year or two. If they were really passionate about what they do, it would be an easy decision. Most people volunteer their time and put in more hours than the school board memembers do for their cause and they ae not being paid. Even with paying the school board members, you have to beg them to show up. Their creed says....try to attend as many board meetings as poss8ible. What about you will attend all board meetings and maintain 98$ dependability. Like all citizens working, we have to meet a dependability policy and there is no word in our policy such as "try" to show up. Also, stop asking the citizens to do your work. Isn't that what we pay them for??? top pointing
here is an email DAN....
Fix your budget shortage and call me in the morning.
What about overpaid and overstaffed central office?!
What am I missing here? How many dollars are usurped by central office salaries and other central office expenses? Shouldn't cuts start in central office rather than our children's classrooms and athletic programs? Is our school board going to look at more areas where central office could be cut MUCH MORE significantly? If the public only knew the amount of dollars being usurped by central office, they would demand MUCH larger cuts to central office. Put all those central office people back in the classroom and save all of us some money. REstructure central office. Make it trimmer and more efficient. I hope the school board demands this. We owe it to our children.
Parents ...take note...
Beware of the 4x4 block schedule. According to the budget, it will save 8 mil and eliminate 150 teachers. It will also require your child to learn a whole year of info in one semester. 3 classes, 90 min each for each semester. Students taking core/SOL classes will have approx 3 months(Feb-May) to learn all content before the SOLs. Teachers will have 3 classes and 1 planning period. Heaven forbid they have more that one prep. Teachers and students will quickly become overwhelmed. Keep your eyes and ears open. 4x4 is not the answer to saving money.
actually
i agree basically with your comments about the 4x4; however, i've personally had three preps for years, and planning every other day. keep in mind that they are asking teachers to teach an extra class with no extra pay, and in fact a deduction in a salary that hasn't seen an increase in 4 years.
Yeah...
Trust me, I realize that too, but I wanted parents to realize the impact it would have on their students. It seems the general public jumps down teachers throats when it's mentioned how hard they work and underpaid, so I just wanted parents to know that while what you say is true, teachers will be teaching 6 classes as opposed to 5 with no compensation, their students will suffer too if they switch to 4x4. Teachers now get a supplement for teaching a 6th class, wonder if that will be the case with the 4x4?
Let me elaborate
Each semester, students will take 3 classes and a lunch or 4 classes with no lunch. Each class will meet for 90 minutes every day, instead of every other day like the traditional block scheduling. They will complete a regular year course in one semester. Second semester, they will take 3 or 4 different classes, BUT there will be less time to learn all material before AP and SOL testing in May. Students will get burnt out and be overloaded with homework every night. Instead of having two nights to complete homework for a class, they will have to complete it in one night....possibly, everynight. 8 mil is a lot of money, but is it worth the student's sanity?