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In an attempt to fund a proposed Carroll County School Board increase of nearly $2 million, a second Carroll County Board of Supervisor member has proposed solutions to fill the shortfall.

Laurel Fork District Supervisor Josh Hendrick suggests a possible cut of $401,000 to the county’s operational budget as well as $510,000 in reductions to Carroll County Public Schools for a total possible reduction of $911,000. Hendrick sent those suggestions to fellow supervisor Phil McCraw prior to an April 4 meeting of the Carroll County Board of Supervisors’ Budget Committee meeting with the Carroll County School Board.

Earlier this year, the school board stated that if its request for an additional $1,937,035 was net met for the Fiscal Year 2012-2013 school budget, the county could face cuts of up to 40 teaching positions and the possible closure of Gladesboro Elementary School.

Pine Creek District Supervisor Bob Martin has already proposed that supervisors fill the gap in one of two ways. The first solution he offered was to not go forward with an offer of $1.6 million to buy a pair of old Kentucky Derby Hosiery buildings in the Carroll County Industrial Park owned by Gildan, and combining that money with an additional $300,000 the school system now expects to receive from the state. The second would be to use $1.6 million out of Carroll County’s fund balance.

Hendrick said that he didn’t see the increased request as a school problem.

“It is a county problem and cuts should occur on both sides. Also, I do not believe it is necessary to close Gladesboro Elementary nor lay off 40 teachers,” Hendrick wrote in an e-mail to McCraw to be read at the budget committee meeting. “I believe a solution can be reached that does not hurt instructional value.”

Hendrick said the Carroll County Public School System is roughly the same size as school systems in Wythe, Russell and Pulaski counties. Carroll has 29 people in Central Office, not including transportation or facilities management. By comparison, Wythe County has 25, Russell has 17, and Pulaski has 21. “Reduction in the {Central Office} staff by eight positions (mixed administration and support) could cut over $450,000,” Hendrick wrote. “The staffing numbers were pulled directly from each school system’s website.”

Hendrick also said the administrative support staff at Carroll County High School includes six secretaries. While Hendrick said he wasn’t sure of their exact duties, he said that number seemed excessive. One is in the process of leaving, he said, so that vacancy plus the reduction of one more would cut approximately $70,000 out of the budget. That, plus Central Office cuts, would reduce more than $500,000 from the school budget, Hendrick added.

The Laurel Fork Supervisor then moves on to the county’s proposed budget. The first thing he would do would to be remove an $8,000 bonus and $100,000 reserve.

“I know the meaning of the bonus, but if things are tight, even if it’s just $8,000, I do not believe there should be any bonuses,” Hendrick said. “The reserve has no meaning and was not present until this current fiscal year.”

Additionally, Hendrick suggests removing an additional secretary at approximately $47,000.

“I believe the current support staff is adequate, even without a budget deficit,” Hendrick said.

Other suggested cuts would be to remove a $100,000 economic development reserve from the Capital Improvement Program.

“If something specific comes up, we can discuss mid-year, but with no specific intentions for the money I believe it should be removed from the budget,” he said.

Hendrick also proposes to remove the addition of an assistant from the Animal Control Department at approximately $36,000, and to reduce fuel expenses for the department by $10,000. Although Hendrick said he knows Carroll County Animal Control Officer Terry Woods is busy, he feels now is not the time to add staff.

Hendrick would also reduce the funding to the Carroll County Sheriff’s Office by at least $100,000, noting that the increase in the request over the last fiscal year is over $250,000. That would total up to a possible county reduction of $401,000.

“That leaves just under $1.1 million. I’m still working on possible solutions for the remainder, but I definitely would entertain funding it using the general fund,” Hendrick said. “Routinely tapping savings does not make good business sense. However, it is there for emergencies and I believe this situation qualifies. That gives us a year to work towards a balanced budget next year. We have just two months to solve the current proposed budget. I do not believe that is a sufficient amount of time to propose cuts much above what I described. This is doing more with less. Next year will likely be worse, unless funding changes from the state or federal, because Fiscal Year 2014 will be the start of repaying the current school renovation projects as well as Fancy Gap water and sewer projects.”

Budget Committee Meeting

Fancy Gap District Supervisor Phil McCraw began the budget committee meeting by saying the committee is working to meet with the top expenditures for the Carroll budget, with the school system being the largest. He said the committee has already met with the New River Regional Jail, Social Services and Mount Rogers Community Services Baord.

“With none of these other groups did we have to read about their needs in the newspaper prior to having conversation and the courtesy of working together to solve the issues at hand,” McCraw said.

McCraw noted that Carroll County ranks second only to Washington County for the school funding transfer in the Mount Rogers Planning District, which covers seven counties and two cities. Historically, he said Carroll has funded additional projects to schools in excess of the local transfer, citing a capital improvement request of $367,260 and an additional project to replace the roof at Oakland Elementrary for $125,000 in 2011 for a total of $492,260 above the amount Carroll funded for school operations last year.

“At the same time, against the wishes of the school board, the board of supervisors asked for raises for teachers and staff to fight the issues of Carroll being one of the lowest-ranked systems in salaries for schools across Virginia and encouraged the use of carryover funds to do so,” McCraw said. “This was done with the purest intent of supporting teachers and staff in their efforts to educate the children of this community and to recognize them for their efforts.”

Additionally, he said Carroll has supported Phase I, II and III construction projects, adding that the current $15 million Phase III project at CCHS and CCIS are underway due to the direct support of the board of supervisors.

“And as requested by the school board, there is currently an additional request for $7.1 million to make additional improvements to Phase III construction,” McCraw said. “Currently the outstanding debt attributed to the school system is $44, 575,771 that is being paid by Carroll County and should stand as evidence to the support that Carroll County is a huge proponent of education.”

The budget committee then asked the school board’s budget committee questions that included places for possible savings within the proposed budget such as the amount of savings for the proposed positions to be eliminated and the number of principals at each school.

“I think the meeting went well. I feel like we made some progress and the budget committee as far as the board of supervisors goes, we are working on several different scenarios and I think we will be able to come up with something that will be agreeable to all parties that shouldn’t have to raise any taxes,” McCraw said. “I think we are going to be able to work it around where we can do a lot to help the schools and not have a tax increase. We are still working. I am not saying we can fully fund everything, but we are working to try to reach something that will work for all parties concerned.”

McCraw described the meeting as cordial and said he felt like members from both boards came away realizing there is still a lot of work to do. Carroll County School Board Chairman Brian Spencer said he came away from the meeting with the feeling of sincerity between both boards to come to a solution.

“I think the county supervisors have been handed some tough issues, and I do have faith that they will work to resolve these issues. The sad thing is 87 percent of a school board budget is personnel, and you are talking about cuts, you are talking about personnel,” Spencer said. “And when you have cut 53 positions since 2008 and it hasn’t affected one of the services, I think that shows amazing strength from the administrators that work in the complex, our principals and our teachers. What scares me is that services are going to be affected. To get a flat budget after all the state mandates, we’ve been cutting the budget everywhere we can to pay for those increases so that we don’t have to pass that on.”