Schools won't get more than the minimum from Rockingham County

Prior to and during Wednesday’s joint meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners and the county’s Board of Education, school board members’ requests for extra funding for area schools were denied. The county said it simply doesn’t have the money.

Before the Wednesday evening meeting, the Board of Education had submitted a list of 10 questions to the county, essentially asking in different ways if extra funding beyond the expected might be a possibility. Greeting education board members at their seats for the dinner meeting were responses to those questions, each answer essentially a resounding “no.”

Of the school district’s $123.5 million overall proposed budget for 2010-11, $22.2 million makes up the local portion. And of that local portion, about $16 million – the same amount as last year – has been promised by the county.

Harold Bass and Nell Rose, chairs of the board of commissioners and education board respectively, led Wednesday night’s meeting, while most members of each board spoke up to share their thoughts at some point during the two-hour session.

Time after time, school board members pleaded the case for the financially struggling school district, asking the commissioners to think hard about whether there might be any money to spare.

Education board member Tim Scales said he worries about the 28 teacher assistant positions that will go unfilled once vacated this year through attrition. He said classroom teachers will have to work harder, presiding over greater numbers of students by themselves.

And Elaine McCollum demanded to know whether any other capital projects are in the works, asking if the school district will be a priority once the county’s new courthouse and jail have been constructed.

“I’m thinking, are the schools really going to be getting that No. 1 focus?” she asked.

County manager Tom Robinson said he didn’t think there were any other large-scale capital projects in the works, and he said the county does hope to soon begin the process of identifying needs in the county and developing a five- or 10-year plan, which would include looking at school system needs.

Though all of the commissioners acknowledged the importance of the school system, they reminded school board members that their budget is tight, too, and 28 different departments throughout the county are requesting funding.

Commissioner Bobby Stanley proffered that the economic climate will likely change in three to five years, noting Rockingham County’s tax base has increased by about a percent each year for the last several years.

Commissioners said this year their plan is to provide the same amount of funding as before, but that they are unable to give anything more than that.

McCollum pleaded one last time at the conclusion of the meeting: “Anything extra comes into the pot at all, please throw it our way.”