The Shadow
The skyrocketing prices of fuel and heating oil are already affecting the Alleghany County Public School Division’s budget for next year.
The school board, in a meeting held Monday at Alleghany High School, approved a bid from Whiting Jamison for fuel and heating oil in 2011-2012. The cost for the budget year is expected to be $816,017. That’s $41,000 above what was budgeted.
The approved bid calls for the school division to pay $3.22 per gallon for gasoline and $3.25 per gallon for diesel fuel. The price of heating oil will be $3.26 per gallon.
Superintendent Dr. Sarah Campbell said the cost increase may for the school division to postpone the purchase of school buses next year.
“If we don’t have the money, we don’t purchase the buses,” she said.
The school board did approve the purchase of two buses Monday, using money from the current operating budget. The buses will be purchases from Kingmor Supply Inc. in Harrisonburg at a total cost of $164,580. The school board is purchasing a 52-passenger bus for special education students and a regular 77-passenger bus. The 52-passenger bus will cost $85,400, and the 77-passenger bus, $79,180.
The school board also voted Monday to increase the fuel reimbursement rate it charges for use of its school buses to $1 per mile. The school division currently charges 70 cents per mile. The rate was last increased in 2008, Kenny Higgins, the school division’s director of administrative services, said.
Higgins said the school division usually receives 10 to 15 requests per year from groups, such as Jackson River Technical Center, wanting to use its buses. He said that in addition to rising fuel costs, the cost for maintain buses is also increasing. The annual maintenance cost for each bus, including labor, now averages $2,265.
“That’s why we are raising the reimbursement rate to one dollar per mile, so we can break even,” he said.
Next month, Higgins will bring a recommendation to the school board calling for lunch prices to be increased in school cafeterias.
In April, Higgins told the school board that lunch prices may have to be raised by a nickel, pending re-authorization of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National School Lunch Program. Lunch prices were last raised in Alleghany County schools three years ago.
Schools must keep lunch prices in line with federal requirements. All lunch and breakfast meals served in schools are subsidized by the Department of Agriculture.
Forecasts from the Department of Agriculture show that prices for meat, dairy, vegetables, fruits and prepared foods are expected to rise 3.5 percent to 5.5 percent in the coming year.
Armilda Hayes, librarian at Sharon Elementary School, asked the board to consider retirees when awarding 3 percent bonuses to school employees in the next budget year. The bonus money will come from federal education jobs funds.
Hayes is retiring effective June 30. The 2011-2012 budget takes effect July 1.
School Board Chairwoman Stacey Bryant thanked Hayes for her comments but made no further remarks.
In other business Monday, the school board:
– Received March 31 average daily membership figures from Keven Rice, director of budget and finance.
Rice said the March 31 ADM was 2,728.06 students, reflecting a decrease of 44.25 (1.6 percent) from a year earlier. The 2011 budget was based on 2,370 students.
“We were very accurate in our enrollment forecasting,” Rice said.
He said student numbers are a major factor in determining how much money a school division receives from the Virginia Department of Education.
– Approved the purchase of three mobile laptop computer labs for Clifton Middle School at a cost of $140,637.51.
The mobile labs will replace computers that were purchased when CMS opened in 2001. The current computers use Windows 2000 operating platforms, making them incompatible with current antivirus software, Mary Jane Mutispaugh, director of instruction, said. The computers are also no longer acceptable for network connections, she said.
The new labs will be purchased from Dell Computers, utilizing state technology funds.
– Approved a policy revision that reinstates the valedictorian and salutatorian at Alleghany High School graduations, beginning in 2012.
Alleghany High School has not named a valedictorian or salutatorian for approximately eight years. The school currently utilizes a system that allows honor graduation to select commencement speakers.
– Approved several personnel-related changes.
Cynthia Morgan was named as an assistant principal, with shared responsibilities at Clifton Middle School and Mountain View Elementary School.
Teaching appointments included Virginia Gardner, math teacher, Alleghany High School; Andrew Clifford, band teacher, Clifton Middle School; Elizabeth Goergen, keyboarding teacher at Clifton Middle School; Martha B. Wood, adult education teacher and Christine Unroe, substitute teacher. Melanie Hartman was appointed as a secretary at Callaghan Elementary School.
The board accepted the retirements of Anita Proffitt, English teacher at Alleghany High School; Armilda Hayes, librarian at Sharon Elementary School; and Patricia Howard, teacher at Falling Spring Elementary School, effective June 30.
The board also accepted the resignations of Catherine Lyon, French teacher at Alleghany High School and Clifton Middle School; Robert Leonard, math teacher at Alleghany High School; and Crystal Laudermilk, teacher assistant at Alleghany High School. The resignations are effective June 30.
