Schools Ask York Supes for More Money

By Amber Lester Thursday, March 25, 2010

The York Board of Supervisors made it clear that education is a funding priority at a joint meeting with the school board Wednesday night.

The York School Board asked the supervisors to consider providing an additional $600,000 in funding to keep 10 teaching positions and six para-educators. In a tight budget season, the board said they wanted to make a reasonable request. But the supervisors said their main concern was whether that amount was enough to maintain the school division's reputation as a leader on the Peninsula.

"I'm a little surprised at the $600,000," said supervisor Tom Shepperd. "I'm surprised you didn't ask for millions. We cannot idly sit back and watch a critical function go down the tubes."

Supervisor Walt Zaremba said when the two boards first held a joint meeting five weeks ago, the school board indicated it wouldn't ask for additional funding (read more about the request here). He wanted to know what had changed over the past month.

Superintendent Eric Williams said the division didn't want to have a "knee-jerk reaction" and run to the county for help with budget cuts. "Our assumption was that we would get level funding, but we wanted to see what the county revenues looked like," he said.

School Board Chair Mark Medford told the board earlier in the meeting, "This is catastrophic for us and you told us to come to you if the event was catastrophic."

Board of Supervisors Chair Donald Wiggins said the board made an early decision to avoid raising taxes despite deep cuts in state funding, but committed to maintaining level funding for schools. At the very most, he and County Administrator James McReynolds estimated the board could provide the school division an additional $200,000 to $300,000.

"We didn't realize how critical the situation is," he said, adding that to provide the additional $600,000, the county was "really going to have to do a lot more cutting, especially with some of the nonprofits that really depend on us."

School board member Barbara Haywood said the board felt the additional 10 teaching positions and six para-educators would be critical to keeping class sizes small and counteracting cuts to remediation services. But the school board and administrators were careful to remind the supervisors that education in York County will be affected with or without the extra funding.

"This will have a significant impact on teaching and learning," Williams said. "Some of these cuts are not sustainable over time. I could have recommended a budget for the long term but the concern was that we'd be making unrealistic requests."

Williams' proposed $123 million budget is down $6.6 million from last year's budget. The revised proposal cuts 24 positions (no layoffs), 10 of which are currently unfilled teaching jobs. The majority of reductions are outside the classroom; they include bus driver hours, tuition reimbursement, fewer field trips, some athletic equipment, textbooks, payment for some Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests and more.

The board of supervisors will discuss the county budget at a retreat on Saturday, at which point they'll likely decide whether it will be feasible to contribute $600,000 to schools. The school board will vote on the proposed budget at 6 p.m. on March 29 at York Hall. The county will vote on its budget on April 6.