The Shadow
LOW MOOR – The Alleghany County School Board is strongly considering closing Sharon Elementary and Boiling Spring Elementary schools in an effort to balance its 2012-2013 operating budget.
Superintendent Dr. Sarah Campbell presented the board with a revised budget that includes two options to cover a $456,718 deficit in next year’s budget Monday evening at Clifton Middle School’s Gleason Forum Hall.
The first of those options included what Campbell called “catastrophic infrastructure reductions” that included, among several other cuts, eliminating the behind the wheel portion of driver’s education, activity bus routes, all athletics at the middle school level, six positions and forcing every school system employee to take a furlough day.
The second option involves closing Boiling Spring and Sharon Elementary schools, which would eliminate 23.84 positions, in addition to the 13.75 already included in the proposed budget, and save the board an estimated $800,000 to $1 million.
Students at Boiling Spring Elementary School would be transferred to Callaghan Elementary School. Under the proposal, students in the Johnson Creek and Indian Draft areas of the Callaghan District would be transferred to Falling Springs Elementary School.
Sharon Elementary School students would be sent to Mountain View Elementary School in Low Moor and students in the Dolly Ann and Pine Valley areas of the county would be transferred from MVES to Falling Spring Elementary to offset the influx of new students.
The plan would bring the population of Callaghan Elementary up to 236 students and 13 teachers, and the population of Mountain View up to 617 students and 30 teachers. At Falling Spring Elementary School, the student population would total 212 with 12 teachers.
After hearing the presentation, Chairwoman Stacey Bryant recommended that the board direct Dr. Campbell to schedule a public hearing on closing the two elementary schools.
“This decision was not made quickly, or easily or with very little thought,” said Bryant. “In fact, there has been many sleepless nights attributed to this budget.”
The proposal to close the Boiling Spring and Sharon Elementary schools was driven by a significant drop in enrollment numbers since the 2004-2005 school year, when there were 1,496 students in grades junior kindergarten through the fifth grade. The projected enrollment for JK-5 next year is 1,065 students, which is a loss of 390 students since 2005.
Campbell projected that there would be 99 students at Boiling Spring Elementary next year, 145 at Falling Spring Elementary and 184 students at Sharon Elementary.
Mountain View Elementary was projected to have the highest enrollment with 470 students and 167 students at Callaghan Elementary.
The school board had requested nearly $1.7 million in additional funding from Alleghany County to balance its budget next year.
Supervisors, however, notified the school board last week that it would receive only $300,000 in additional funding.
Supervisors are proposing that the county’s real estate tax rate be raised by 3 cents to generate the $300,000 for the schools. Bryant said that the board of supervisors would need to raise the property tax rate by 17 cents in order to fully fund the school board’s request.
Bryant placed the blame for the enrollment drop on the economic situation facing the Alleghany Highlands.
“I am not placing blame on the board of supervisors. I suppose some of you out there are blaming us,” she told the near capacity crowd that filled Gleason Hall. “The blame lies directly on job loss in our area. When Lear and AET closed several years ago, it left many families without work. With no work, they had no choice but to leave our area. Without jobs, there is no additional tax revenue available to our local government. The reality is that this is where we are.
“We have lost nearly 400 students since 2005. That’s more than half the population of Mountain View, or two of the smaller elementary schools combined,” Bryant explained.
“This is the most challenging year we’ve ever faced with the budget,” said board member Rob Fridley. “I don’t welcome this. No one does. But we have to face reality in some respects.”
It was a sentiment echoed by Boiling Springs representative Patsy McKinney.
“It’s a sad day,” she said. “I hate to see this happen, but I don’t see any other way.”
Sharon representative Billy Angle had a different opinion.
“I guess I’m the oddball,” Angle said, to a round of applause from those in the audience. “My opinion is that closing two elementary schools in this county is not an option. Period. I think we need to look back at all the options we have here and dig deeper as a board. We need to find the money to fund these two schools at least another year so that we can get a plan in stone. We all understand the reason this has been brought together as fast as it has been, but there’s no way the school board or anyone can develop a strong, solid-rock plan to close two schools in a week and a half.”
The school board now faces a tight deadline to choose a plan to balance the budget, be it the “catastrophic reduction” option or the closing of two elementary schools.
In order to close the schools, the board must first hold a public hearing, which has been set for June 4 at 6 p.m. at Gleason Hall.
The board is also required to issue reduction in force notifications by June 1 and is required to approve a budget no later than June 30, since the next fiscal year begins July 1.
The board only recently learned that it would be receiving $15,784,540 from the state and an additional $300,000 above the level funding originally proposed by the Alleghany County Board of Supervisors.
The delay in getting solid budget figures was what caused the proposal to close the schools be presented to the board only weeks before the end of the school year and so closely to the end of the current fiscal year.
“We typically have this done in March and here it is May and we still don’t have a finalized budget,” Campbell said.
“There was no intention of being secretive or trying to hide from the truth,” Bryant said.
Either option chosen by the board would be among the most drastic cuts made by the board since 2009.
Over a four-year period, and including the loss of 13.75 positions included in next year’s budget prior to the board choosing an option to balance the budget, the school board has reduced the operating budget by a total of $4,628,200 and 61.85 positions.
The number of positions lost will grow after the board chooses an option to balance the budget.
The revised budget would provide level funding to Jackson River Technical Center with only enough additional funds to cover the increase in Virginia Retirement System rates.
Campbell informed the board that level funding to JRTC would mean the computer systems technology position lost through budget cuts last year would not be resurrected.
She also told the board that, after receiving firm enrollment figures from junior kindergarten and kindergarten registration that she recommended the elimination of a classroom teacher at Boiling Spring, Mountain View and Falling Spring, as well as reduce a part-time music teacher within the division.
The revised budget also eliminates a proposed 2 percent plus step salary increase and includes a 0.7 percent increase for VRS employees to offset FICA and Medicare increases.
