No one comments at school budget hearing

Funds sought to lock classrooms

By Amy Boucher

INDEPENDENCE -- Part of the extra $250,000 the Grayson County Public School System is asking the county to spend over the required minimum next year will go toward locks for classroom doors.
Assistant Superintendent Judy Greear explained that "to lock down a classroom you really need to be able to lock that door from the inside."
She outlined the budget priorities at the start of a public hearing on the $21.7 million school budget May 8 and mentioned the locks as part of a $60,000 request for maintenance funds.  The school system also wants $90,000 for a new bus, and $100,000 to help pay for a technology program that will eventually put laptop computers in the hands of all students in grades four through 12. All of this would be in addition to the state-required local contribution to schools, estimated to be around $4.8 million.
The school system lists its priorities as: technology, staff salaries, instruction, facilities, and transportation.
(For more details on the school budget priorities and county position, see the March 17, 2014 post.http://www.amyreports.blogspot.com/2014/03/grayson-school-board-asks-for-increase.html)
Because the state has not yet adopted a budget, the school system is working from estimated numbers, using the budget the governor submitted as a premise. Greear explained that the school system needs to know what the county will contribute as quickly as possible to prepare contracts for staff members. Without contracts, some could look for work elsewhere.
Greear said employees would get an average raise of 3 percent in the proposed budget and that since 2008-9 "gross and net pay for our staff has gone down."
The Grayson Supervisors asked no questions. County Administrator Jonathan Sweet said the supervisors would take no immediate action but could do so at a budget work session. Their next work session is at 6:30 p.m. May 14.
Supervisors' Chairman John Brewer asked whether the board could approve a school budget without knowing what the required local effort -- the amount the state requires the county to contribute -- is.
Sweet said the county could agree to contribute whatever that amount is without knowing the exact figure, but he wasn't sure how that would affect employee contracts. The county could then decide about any extra money "in a separate motion beyond RLE."
in other action May 8, the supervisors:
*heard from Ruth Ross, land stewardship coordinator of Grayson Landcare, about the organization and its projects. These include the Independence Farmers' Market, a proposed slaughterhouse for local livestock, a "whole farm planning" program which offers free consultations, four "Save Green Expos" with a fifth set this fall focusing on food, and a Land Stewardship Competition for students which took place May 10 and offered $2,000 in prizes. The supervisors unanimously adopted a proclamation in support of the competition.
*Set a public hearing for 7 p.m. June 12 on the 2014-15 county budget.
*Unanimously adopted a stormwater management ordinance that will allow the local building official to administer state-mandated stormwater management regulations. Without the ordinance, construction projects would have to wait for state reviews, Building Official Jimmy Moss explained. The supervisors also approved an associated change in the erosion and sediment control ordinance. Moss assured them that he had written "the least restrictive local ordinance that remains in compliance with the state of Virginia." Sweet pointed out that administering the new stormwater ordinance will add to the building official's workload.
*learned from Sweet that he will ask the Virginia Department of Transportation to undertake a new traffic study in the Troutdale area at the request of Supervisor Glen "Eddie" Rosenbaum. The most recent traffic study there was in 2012.
*entered closed session to discuss a new business or industry or a business or industry expansion and to discuss personnel.