Craig County Supervisors Rusty Zimmerman and Kathi Toelke listen to points made by Craig County School Board Members at the April 12 supervisors’ meeting
Meg Hibbert
Contributing writer
The Craig County Board of Supervisors might not be able to give Craig Schools as much money as they are asking for next year, but at least the two boards ended on a friendly note at the April 12 budget work session
For this fiscal year and the next one which starts July 1, Craig County Schools have asked county government to restore the $67,566 in local money the county’s elected leaders cut.
That didn’t happen.
Until last year, the county contributed one-half of the cost toward all school projects.
“I cut it out this time because we didn’t have the money,” new County Administrator Dan Collins said. But he agreed to put into the proposed Capital Improvement Plan a total of $90,000 to purchase a replacement school bus, with payments spread over five years.
School leaders were hoping for more, and three made their case for much-needed increases to pay Craig school teachers and make building improvements.
“It’s kind of sad when teachers have to work two jobs, and these are people who don’t even have kids,” said School Board Member Gina Smith. “We’re at the bare minimum as far as personnel,” she added.
School Board Member George Foster pointed out “the average school system doesn’t have buses 22 years old.”
“It was a bit disheartening when we were not included at all in this capital needs plan [which the county administrator prepared for the first time a couple of weeks ago],” Craig School Superintendent Jeanette D. Warwick said.
Warwick quoted a citizen who addressed the supervisors, “A $90,000 trash compactor was pub above a $90,000 school bus that hauls our kids every day.”
“We are almost at the bottom of the state” in school salaries, School Board Member Sue Crenshaw pointed out, “with other localities paying $4,000, $6,000, $10,000 more a year.”
“You have to think of it as an investment who live here, work here,” Crenshaw added, referring to providing more money so school salaries could be raised.
Warwick continued, “Last year I had to go to my employees and ask them ‘Do you want your insurance rates to stay the same for you and your families or do you want a pay increase?’ They chose not to have insurance increases.”
Craig County School Board members listening to members of the Board of Supervisors at the April 12 budget work session with Supervisors are, from right, Chairman Patrick Myers, Gina Smith, Vice Chairman Sue Crenshaw, and George Foster, next to School Superintendent Jeanette Warwick.
County Administrator Collins, who began work with Craig in February, apologized to the school board and school administration for not giving them more time to submit priorities for his first capital needs plan. “I just ran out of time. I think we need to get together and talk a little longer than five minutes,” he said.
Warwick agreed she and board members wanted to meet quarterly with Collins and county leaders after budget deliberations are over.
Like the school system, Craig County government is facing major expenditures to replace aging equipment and fix up buildings.
Specifically, repairs are needed to the courthouse and social services buildings, and to the county’s governmental Internet and telephone systems. Those will probably be addressed with borrowed money, according to the county administrator’s proposals.
The county Internet server which operates the Commissioner of Revenue’s tax records needs to be replaced because it is no longer compatible with newer systems, Supervisors were told. Collins said once the budget is approved, the new system can be installed by September.
The final scheduled work session on the county budget is this Thursday, April 19, at 6:30 p.m. A public hearing on the budget is set for 7 p.m. the same night. Supervisors are not planning to raise taxes.
Although Craig Schools have approved their budget for Fiscal Year 2018-19, it likely will go back for another review and vote after the Virginia General Assembly. That body is meeting now to iron out the state budget and other compromise legislation before adopting a final budget for the next two years.
As presented right now, anticipated school expenditures for 2018-19 are $6.9 million, with $4.9 million of that in the instructional line and another $567,697 in administration. Pupil transportation is another $506,226, and operations and maintenance, $591,193.
The county’s total expenditures for the next fiscal year are $13.8 million, with expected revenue of $8.3 million on the county government side, plus $5.4 million on the school side.
Major expected expenditures
The two highest projected expenditures outside of the school system are $968,572 for the sheriff’s office, and $402,155 for solid waste. Current projected debt service on borrowed funds is $564,778, according to the budget sheet provided at the April 12 Board of Supervisors meeting.
To save county money in the long run, the Board of Supervisors is considering purchasing a $90,000 trash compactor from general revenue funds for the Rt. 42 site, to cut out some of the hauling costs by reducing the number of trips to area landfills.
In order to have a trash compaction site work, it would have to be manned for several hours a day to make certain only household trash is disposed of at the Rt. 42 site.
The Supervisors and County Administrator Collins are asking for potential part-time employees to work the site and prevent people from disposing of items which could not be compacted easily.
“There was everything and his brother in there,” said Collins, referring to trash at the Rt. 42 site last week. “It is critical to hire three, four or five people to monitor the site three hours a day,” he added.