By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON

By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON

Rappahannock New* Staff Writer

The March 20th budget session of the Rappahannock School Board may have set a county record on motions dying for lack of second. Moving category by category through the proposed 197980 budget, the board members opted for the basic over the recommended with few adjustments.

Invariably opposed to the allocations supported by Superintendent William Bloomer for expanded school operations, board members Walter Masterson and Alan Stokes also voted on several occasions against basic items required to meet state and federal mandates. Neither offered any explanation for their opposition.

At times, the meeting threatened to degenerate into a parody of parliamentary procedure. Time and again, chairman Beverly Massie handed her authority to vicechairman Paul Nichols so she could initiate a motion.

Nichols opened the meeting with a motion that the board accept the budget as recommended by Dr. Bloomer. After Nichols’ proposal died for lack of second, Mrs. Massie asked for a motion to'go through line item by line item. Her request met with a long silence before Stokes suggest a less specific review by categories. His motion passed four to one with Nichols opposed.

The first category, administration, included as major items salaries for superintendent, assistant superintendent and administrative secretaries, as well as legal counsel fees. Of these, only legal fees showed a difference—S3,000 to $5,000—between basic and recommended.

Before a motion was made on the category of administration, Masterson demanded to know what skills children were going to acquire for expenditures in administrative salaries. The county is paying more money for education, he claimed, with no corresponding increase in skills demonstrated by students.