County schools' budget proposal 'cuts deeply'

The Pittsylvania County Schools’ budget committee met Thursday night to discuss a preliminary budget proposal that saved jobs — but slashed instructional programs.

Superintendent James McDaniel presented the budget, which he described as “fluid” — because predicting concrete savings in some areas was impossible. The overall estimated cut was more than $5.1 million. The budget shortfall is $4.6 million, but could be as much as $5.5 million.

“The scope of this budget proposal tonight is far-reaching,” McDaniel said, “and it cuts deeply into the heart of Pittsylvania County Schools’ educational programs … The priority I believe is to save jobs and maintain quality instructional programs. I have to be honest with you, I don’t think you can do both.”

The proposal included eliminating 38 positions through attrition, which McDaniel said was impossible because some were essential positions that would need to be refilled. But class sizes would increase, he said.

Other staff reductions included two furlough days for 12-month fulltime non-teacher employees, using existing staff for teacher substitutes and reducing some 11-month positions to 10 months, such as head football coaches, band directors, gifted education and family life teachers.

More than $1 million of the cuts came from instructional programs, such as completely eliminating: the alternative school and its transportation, saving $325,000; Advanced Placement fees, saving $25,000; field trips, saving $75,000; and the Cortez Math Program, saving $198,940.

The proposal would also reduce PALS tutoring and SOL remediation by 50 percent each, saving $235,000, and reduce by a third each of the following: gifted education, fine arts, foreign language and physical education, saving nearly $30,000. The cuts would also reach library, SOL, instructional supplies and extra class period funding.

Extracurricular activities such as band allocations would be cut by 50 percent, saving $30,000, and athletics by 25 percent, saving $40,000. Pittsylvania County Schools would cease to serve as community facilities after school hours to save $125,000 on maintenance costs and reduce maintenance purchase services by $300,000.

IT funding faced a $500,000 cut, but the committee stressed that technology remain a priority.

“It’s gonna be critical,” McDaniel said. “Worse than painful … Everything we have worked for is being touched here.”

Committee members expressed concern that the budget did not affect everyone fairly and suggested McDaniel and his staff present modified budget proposals that included both a 1- and 2-percent across-the-board pay cut to save programs such as alternative school. A 1-percent pay cut would equal about $575,000, McDaniel said.

McDaniel expressed extreme frustration with the consistent minimal funding from the county Board of Supervisors and he and the committee members urged district staff to demand more funding.

“We’ve tried to tell them and they don’t believe us,” Committee Chairman Neal Oakes said of the supervisors.

The revised versions of the budget proposal will be available online Monday in the “Superintendent’s Minutes” section on the district Web site, www.pcs.k12.va.us.

“We’re gonna have to make some serious decisions and my mind tends toward across-the-board pay cuts,” committee member Charles Miller said. “If there’s gonna be some pain, it’s gonna have to be shared by everybody.”