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1985-02-20 adj~ Februar~ 20~ 1_~8 'Ad'our. ned Meetin~ with School Board) An adjourned meeting of the Board of Supervisors of Albemarle. County, Virginia, was held on February 20~ 1985 at 4:00 p.m., Meeting Rooms 5 & 6, Second Floor, Albemarle County Office Building, 401 McIntire Road, Charlottesville, Virginia. Present: Mr. F. R. Bowie, Mrs. Patricia H. Cooke (arrived 4:10 p.m.), Messrs. Gerald E. Fisher, J. T. Henley, Jr., C. Timothy Lindstrom. Absent: Mr. Peter T. Way. School Board Members Present: Mr. Charles S. Armstrong, Mr. John E. Baker, Mrs. Jessie C. Haden, and Messrs. Forres~ R. Marshall, Walter F. Perkins, Robert E. Taylor, and Charles R. Tolbert. Officers Present: Mr. Guy B. Agnor, Jr., County Executive; Dr. Carlos Guiterrez, Superin- tendent of Schools; Dr. Elizabeth Morie, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction; Mr. David C. Papenfuse, Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Administration; Dr. Carole A. Hastings, Director of Personnel. Agenda Item No. 1. Mr. Fisher and Mrs. Haden called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. Agenda Item No. 2. Joint meeting with the School Board. Item No. 2a. Progress Report from the School Facilities Planning Committee. Mr. Fisher recognized Mr. David Bowerman, chairman of both the School Facilities Planning Committee and the Planning Commission, who would report on the Committee's activities. Mr. Bowerman introduced other members of the Committee: Mrs. Norma Diehl and Mr. Richard Gould, of the Planning Commission; Mr. Charles R. Tolbert, Mr. John E. Baker of the School Board; Mr. C. Timothy Lindstrom and Mr. Peter T. Way of the Board of Supervisors. Mr. Bowerman said the Committee has submitted the Request for Proposal (RFP) approved by the Board of Supervisors for bids. The bids were due at 5:00 p.m., he said, on February 15, and at that time the Committee had received seven. Six of the seven meet the criteria set forth in the RFP in that the bidders have experience in school facilities planning, school operations, inventory and structural analysis. Budget fees submitted with the proposals have been removed prior to evaluation, but Mr. Bowerman said the fees listed ranged from $33,660 to $150,000. He said some of these fees were broken down as to how much of the study the County might want the consultants to do. Mr. Bowerman said the Committee felt it might take the proposals line item by line item and purchase services for specific things. Some items could be handled by staff. The RFP requires population and enrollment analysis, facilities planning, efficiency improvements and a financial estimate of recommended improvements. The Committee decided to have Planning Director James Donnelly, Assistant Superintendent David Papenfuse and a representative from the County Executive's Office 'reView the proposals and evaluate them for the committee. The Committee will then make a recommendation to the School Board and the Board of Supervisors on which consultant to hire, prior to March 15, 1985, when the contract is to be signed. Mr. Fisher asked Mr. Bowerman if the range in prices is a result of ambiguity in the RFP itself. Mr. Bowerman said he feels the Committee has covered the entire ballpark in terms of things to be done by the study, at the same time realizing that some portions of the study could be done by the staff. Mr. Tim Michel said he was glad to hear that at least one bid was under the $35,000 budgeted for this study. Mr. Fisher asked, if the study begins on April 1, when the first report would be ready. Mr. Bowerman said the report should be available on Meriwether Lewis/Murray within 90 days. No time frame has been set For other schools, but this is one of the most pressing issues confron- ting the County. Mr. Taylor asked if the Committee has the flexibility to spend more than $35,000 if it needs more money to get the study that would benefit the County the most. Mr. Tolbert said the Committee has no money at all of its own; all funds must come through the Board of Supervisors. Mr. Lindstrom said the Board and Committee should wait and see what is involved in each pro- posal. Mr. Bowerman said the Committee would also consider which items are most important for study and give those items a high priority. Mrs. Haden said she hoped the Board would stick to the timetable that had originally been approved for the study so that the Meriwether Lewis/Murray schools can be improved. (Mrs. Cooke arrived at the meeting at this Juncture, 4:10 p.m.) Mr. Fisher said the Board appreciates the work the School Facilities Planning Committee is doing, and the Board wants to see the project move forward. Mr. Bowerman said he thought the Board would have a recommendation to act on by March 13. Item No. 2b. Significant Expense Changes in Program Areas for the 1985-86 School Budget. Mrs. Haden said the Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Guiterrez, would present this item, and in. it are included specific items under the general headings of program changes. Dr. Guiterrez said he would first like to report on the progress of the Broadus Wood School renovations. He said the construction is ahead of schedule and he thinks the students will be able to use the facility in September. As far as significant changes in programming, Dr. Guiterrez said the changes will be diffi- cult to discuss without mentioning money, but he would try to do that to set the stage for discussion. Eeb~nary 20 1985 (Afternoon MeetinE_~th SchoolBoard]___~-~ The school staff, Dr. Guiterrez said, has spent a large amount of time developing an expenditure plan to include instructional needs as seen by the principals and others who work most closely with the actual instruction. No new proposals have been set out in the 1985-86 proposed school budget. The only new plan is one that would provide retirement benefits for school bus drivers. The bus drivers have asked for this plan as an "enrichment" of the present expenditure plan. Dr. Guiterrez said the largest item in the budget for 1985-86 is the teachers' salary category. With adjusted increases, the-beginning teacher's salary next year will be $14,000 and Dr. Guiterrez said that figure is really not competitive with other areas. He said this year, for the first time, the school system is having difficulty finding teachers to fill all its positions. The fields of mathematics and science are particularly hard-hit, as is special education. To combat this, recruiting agents are going to colleges and universities to obtain first-year teachers, and these recruiters are finding that the competition for the services of these people is very stiff. It is made more difficult by the fact that a $14,000 starting salary is a very low one in these markets. The School Board and staff have proposed, he said, a five percent increase on the base salary for all teachers, plus a five percent increment between steps on the pay scale. About teachers will have reached the top step and will receive only a five percent increase. Dr. Guiterrez said the category of teacher compensation will have to increase dramatically in the next few years to attract good teachers. Administrative and classified personnel within the school system will receive a slightly higher salary increase comprised of a four percent base increase and merit increases starting at 7.5 percent for a total of ll.5 percent. The School board has asked for full merit pay funding with the stipulation that it may not all be used. Salaries for substitute teachers and non-degree personnel will increase to offset the difficulty in getting substitute teachers, especially for rural schools. While the County's school enrollment increases slightly this year, the increase is in the primary grades, particularly kindergarten, rather than across-the-board. The large numbers of kindergarten students has caused some concern about large class sizes. Several kindergarten classes have as many as 30 pupils. The School Board is recommending seventeen new positions for elementary schools. Seven of those positions will not decrease class size, but will simpll keep pupil/teacher ratios at the same level. The additional ten teachers, hired in response tc a community demand for smaller classes, will reduce class size by approximately two children. Money has also been placed in the budget, Dr. Guiterrez said, for additional clerical hel in the schools, particularly in the middle schools, where guidance counselors spend time that could be used more productively doing clerical tasks. The SchOol Board is also asking for two secretaries for the four middle schools. Dr. Guiterrez reminded the Board that' in the past, when money ran low and something had t¢ 6~ cut from the School Budget, capital items were usually the ones to go. This year, he said, the School Board can no longer neglect its capital needs. Albemarle High School and Burley Middle School need materials especially, since they have had the least amount of money spent o~ capital items in the recent past. School buses are another large section of the budget. Dr. Guiterrez said the School Boarc would like to buy fifteen buses to replace those that cannot be run anymore. If thirteen new. buses are purchased during each of the next two years, 1985-86 and 1986-87, then the system will be back on a ten-year replacement schedule for its 130 school buses. Dr. Guiterrez said getting back on schedule could take the balance of this decade. Maintaining a high level of teacher compensation has been the goal of the budgeting pro- cess, Dr. Guiterrez said. This goal will continue through the next several years, as the Boarc and staff continue to view the budgeting process as long-term planning. The requests addressee in each budget lay the groundwork for future improvements to the school system. Dr. Guiterrez said these comments concluded his proposal. Mr. Lindstrom said he did not want to violate the rules that have been set out for this meeting by talking money, but he thinks the Board of Supervisors could use a study of the causes of the shifts in enrollment. The School Board has proposed to take nine of the 17 new positions from middle school positions that can be removed because middle school enrollments are comparatively low. Mr. Lindstrom feels other staff positions could be created by elimi- nating middle school positions and consolidating classes. Mr. Marshall said he had asked for such a study a month ago from the staff, and he thought it had been done. Mrs. Haden said the School Board has done that, and noted that it is difficult to maintain a number of diversified course offerings at the high school level with fairly Small class sizes. Mr. Lindstrom said he had spoken with members of the school staff who think it might be possible to get the positions from within the staff. Mrs. Haden said Dr. Elizabeth Morie had report on that. Dr. Morie presented the papers to the Board of Supervisors and showed them enrollment charts. The charts show increasing enrollment at the primary level, with the lowes enrollments in the middle schools. While the overall enrollment increases, the pupil/ teacher ratio for the whole system remains fairly constant. The problem is that the primary grades ma~ have large classes. Dr. Morie said her charts were based on hiring nine new teachers, not 17. The 17 new positions will decrease the pupil/teacher ratio somewhat. Dr. Morie said the pupil/teacher ratio problem is not a problem at some elementary school~ while at others, it is forcing some unsatisfactory situations. She said the County would be maintaining the status quo with the nine teachers. M~Lindstrom said his personal concern is not the ratio overall, but the classrooms with 27, 28 or 30 students per class. Dr. Morie said the charts would not show that problem. Eebrma~y 20, 19j~ ~ ~5 (Afternoon Meeting with School Board) Dr. Morie continued her presentation, saying that enrollment at the middle school level haaodacreased from 2,292 to 1,841. High school enrollments have dropped from 2,900 to 2,700 this year, and in both cases, the pupil/teacher ratios have improved. Two plans of staffing have been proposed. One would maintain the status quo by hiring just enough teachers to keep the class sizes from increasing. The second plan, including the hiring of 17 new teachers, would reduce the class sizes in some areas. Dr. Morie said the first option is not so desirable, because if there are going to be large classes, they should not be in the early grades, since these children are learning fundamentals and will need more individualized attention. She said the second plan will be more positive and more efficient. Mr. Lindstrom said he still wonders if perhaps nine new teaching positions can be created within the system by eliminating some positions at the middle school level. Dr. Guiterrez said it would be possible to study this option, but the staffing problem has two phases. First, the School Board and administrators do not know how many kindergarten students the County will have; those figures will not be available until September. He would prefer to have the money available in case some new teachers have to be hired after the start of the year. The Conty might not need nine teachers; it might only need three, so all the money may not be allocated. If the schools need more than nine teachers, or more than the budgeted number of teachers, the School Board and Board of Supervisors will have to do some strategic maneuvering to meet those needs after the fact. The second phase of the problem is that the teaching positions at middle and high school levels could be found and eliminated to meet the needs of the primary schools. Advanced classes could be combined. If that happens, however, some people will lose their jobs and there will be a public outcry. Mr. Lindstrom said the recommendation from this putative study would have to contain commen~ on how the reductions in the middle schools would effect those schools and also look at alternative ways to meet the needs of those schools. Dr. Guiterrez said the study would have to look at the question of ratios. The middle school model, though, is not an efficient one, but the County has been working on it for ten years and has made a committment to it. Eliminating positions might damage the model and force the school system into an alternative method of teaching the middle school children. Mr. Tolbert asked if the Boards need to do anything to instruct the staff further. Mr. Baker said the concern Mr. Lindstrom has raised could be studied, but the judgements do not have to be made now. The Boards can get the dollar recommendations and then make the duly noted corrections. Mr. Lindstrom said he would like to say at this point that he is struggling with an editorial in Sunday's edition of the Daily Pr'ogress that perhaps misrepresented the facts. He'~ said he feels strongly that if the School Board sincerely believes that some requests are necessary, it should make those requests regardless of how palatable to the Board of Super- visors they may be perceived to be. He said he thinks the School Board has done the right thing in making its requests. However, if the Board of Supervisors looks at the School budget and decides that it cannot fund everything, then he hopes the School Board will agree to work with the Board of Supervisors on compromises. Before he votes on a definite dollar amount in the School budget, however, he said he needs to know if there is another way of solving the problems without appropriating more funds or cutting funds. Mr. Lindstrom said he has to be able to respond to his constituents and justify his vote on the basis of information he has received. Mr. Henley said he thinks the editorial, in which the School Board was criticized for presenting a budget over the amount it had been told it had to spend, was one of the few he had agreed with. Mr. Marshall told Mr. Lindstrom that he asked the staff the same question Mr. Lindstrom had asked about taking the positions from the middle schools, and had been told that to do so would hurt the children. He had been against hiring the additional teachers, and looked at the budget as conservatively as possible and was still convinced that the schools have to have these teachers. He does not think the School Board is asking for anything it does not need. If the money is not provided, there will have to be cuts and the system will suffer. Mr. Fisher said he shares the School Board's concerns, but there is not enough money to go around. It may take a tax increase, and if the Board is going to increase taxes, it wants to make certain that the evidence of the necessity of the tax increase is compelling. Mr. ~ Marshall said he came to the County Office Building a couple of weeks ago and did some checking and found enough revenues to cover the overrun in the' schOol budget if taxes are not increased. Mr. Lindstrom said that, contrary to what the newspaper had said, there will be an increase because the reassessment raised taxes by about twelve percent. Mr. Marshall said he had heard that some of the supervisors were anticipating a tax cut. If taxes are to be cut, then the school budget will be cut also. But if the tax rate is left as it is, the school budget can be funded with the extra money. He said he is committed to fighting for the money. He does not think the County needs a tax cut. Mrs. Haden said the School Board can get the figures Mr. Lindstrom wants delivered to him very quickly. Mr. Baker said the School Board considered the documents to be presented to the Board of Supervisors and the answers to many of the Supervisors' questions will be in this budget as goals, accomplishments, enhancements and detriments are explained. Mr. Taylor said the budget document is the result of a lot of hours of labor and it represents what the School Board really feels it needs to provide quality education in the County. Mrs. Cooke said she feels strongly about the education system in the County, and since the Albemarle schools serve a highly educated pupulation, they expect a high quality school system. If this is the type of system the citizens want, then they may have to pay for it. She said the Supervisors' minds should stay open as they look at the budget. Academic education for those going on to college should be coupled with education that adequately prepares high school students for the business world as well. Mrs. Cooke said she feels many high school graduates reach the job market unprepared for the working world. Since all of these things require money, she said the Board should look at what the citizens want and vote accordingly. ~ebruary 20, 1985 (Adjourned Meeting with School Board) Mrs. Haden said the pupil/teacher ratio in grades K-3 is a major concern all over the County, not in a single area or community. Mr. Fisher said he feels several county citizens mistakenly think that the budget goes directly from the School Board to the Board of Supervisors. Actually, it goes through the hands of the County Executive, whose job it is to review the document and present it along witl the other requests from the other county departments so the Board can review a single balanced budget. He said he would like the reporters to convey this information to people so the gen- eral public will not think the Supervisors already have the 1985-86 budget. Mr. Fisher then asked Mr. Agnor for a progress report on the budget. Mr. Agnor said the preparation process is about a day and a half behind, but the budget should be ready for pres- entation to the Board of Supervisors in March, for approval in April. He said he himself has not seen a total amount for the entire budget yet. The school budget was delivered only yes- terday, and he is still awaiting information from two more agencies. He said when he sees the grand total he will have a better idea of how far the revenues will go. His response to the statement that the funds are there, without a tax cut, to fund the school budget, is to say that the funds are there if the Board of Supervisors allows no other County department any increase whatsoever. Unfortunately, other agencies must be considered as well. The school budget would take the entire $1.4 million unallocated balance. Mr. Marshall said he understands that there is more than $1.4 million. Mr. Agnor said he will have to find Mr. Marshall's source of information. He said the $1.4 million is local money only. Other increases, such as those from the State, will be allocated already, by the state, to various departments, such as Social Services. Mr. Fisher said the General Assembly will have to make up its mind about funding basic state aid to education by this weekend. Agenda Item No. 3. Other Matters Not on the Agenda. Mr. Fisher asked if anyone had anything to discuss. There being nothing, he .called for a motion to allow the Board to go into executive session to discuss legal matters. Mr. Lindstroz made motion, seconded by Mr. Bowie, which carried by the following recorded vote: AYES: NAYS: ABSENT: Mr. Bowie, Mrs. Cooke, Messrs. Fisher, Henley, and Lindstrom. None. Mr. Way. Agenda Item No. 4. Adjournment. The Board reconvened into open session at 7:30 p.m. and immediately adjourned.