We applaud the Rappahannock

We applaud the Rappahannock supervisors for the restraint they demonstrated on Monday as they held cuts to school expenditures to only $18,000.

It took courage when the county’s governing body is staring at a 58 cent tax rate, a .hike of 38 percent from the current year’s levy of 42 cents per $100 of assessed value.

In April, 1983, it was a different story. Faced with a 58 cent tax rate last year, the supervisors chopped $116,830 from the school budget. The surgery might have forestalled an outcry from some of Rappahannock’s taxpayers but it motivated parents and advocates of improved educational programs to try to prevent a repeat performance this year.

And the supervisors listened. They listened to the School Board members explain educational needs at a joint work session, the first ever held by the two bodies. They listened to speakers at the first night public hearing on the proposed school budget unanimously endorse the School Board’s requests.

And they took a hard look at past practices.

This year, a $110,000 maintenance bill on the elementary school roof falls due because a finished repair project has been postponed for years in the interests of saving money.

In 1982, the latest year for which figures are available from the state, Rappahannock’s starting teacher salary ranked 90th and maximum teacher pay ranked 117th among Virginia’s 135 school divisions, leaving the county at a disadvantage in attracting and keeping top instructors.

Space needs at the high school were first documented and acknowledged by a joint School Board/Board of Supervisors committee in 1976 but nothing was done to relieve overcrowded conditions beyond addition of four temporary modular units. Meanwhile, construction costs have climbed and the education of youngsters has suffered because science longer.