Proposed budget cuts are deep
for Lexington, county schools
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| Waddell Elementary is one of two Lexington schools facing sharp budget cuts. (ERIN GALLIHER/The Rockbridge Report) |
Lexington and Rockbridge County school officials are looking for ways to significantly reduce spending in the wake of Gov. Tim Kaine’s call last month to cut an average of 10 percent from school budgets across the state.
If Kaine’s proposed budget cuts are approved, the Lexington City School District must cut $348,290 from its budget, said Lexington City Schools Superintendent Dan Lyons. The Rockbridge County School District is looking at a number between $1.2 million and $1.3 million, depending on next year’s enrollment figures, said county schools Superintendent John Reynolds. The cuts would take place in the budget year that begins for the state on July 1.
Both school districts have already begun trying to figure out where the money will come from. Lyons said Lexington has already begun realizing some savings from retirements and resignations, personnel adjustments and eliminating reimbursements for teachers who take classes in continuing education.
More savings will come from cutting about $35,000 in materials and supplies and about $15,000 in expenditures like field trips and athletic equipment. Even after all those cuts, Lyons said, the district still has to eliminate about $100,000.
The county schools will follow a similar plan to deal with the anticipated cuts. Reynolds said the money cannot come only from teaching positions, or materials and supplies, or salaries.
“It’s going to have to be some combination of a lot of things,” he said. “Personnel and salary will be a part of it, but it won’t be the only part.”
While both Lyons and Reynolds said their goal is to minimize the impact on students, they recognized that the classroom will experience some changes.
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| School administrators are waiting for the General Assembly to act. (ERIN GALLIHER/Rockbridge Report) |
In the county schools, for instance, those changes could include anything from a lack of new computers to increased class sizes, Reynolds said. Both school systems currently operate with a 17-to-1 ratio of pupils to teachers. Both administrations must decide how much they are willing to let that ratio increase before they determine how many positions will be funded next year.
With the current state of the economy and Virginia’s projected $3 billion deficit, both superintendents said they understand that the state must act.
“It’s not like they [Virginia] have the money and don’t want to give it,” Lyons said. “They just don’t have the money.”
The size of the anticipated budget cuts will not become final until Virginia’s General Assembly reaches a decision, which is expected to come at the end of the month.
The legislature’s cuts could be smaller than those proposed by Kaine, but they could also be bigger. Reynolds said the wait makes a solution harder to find.
“It’s the uncertainty right now that kind of complicates the planning process or the development of a plan to deal with the shortfall,” he said.
Gov. Tim Kaine's budget cuts announcement
County schools
Superintendent John Reynolds speaks about the budget cuts' effects on students
Produced by
Washington and Lee
journalism students.
Lead Supervisors:
Prof. Brian
Richardson
Prof. Indira Somani
Editing supervisor:
Prof. Lisa Tracy
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd