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district, the limited demand for some electives that must be offered means small classes in a number of courses — Home Ec, for example. The use of hazardous equipment keeps Industrial Arts classes small. And some — but only a few — of the college-bound will want a fourth year of French.
Then there are the special situations. Many youngsters — 75 to 85 — go half days to the Piemdont Technical Education Center in Culpeper — some in the morning, some in the afternoon. But they must still earn their diploma credits. Some end up in advanced-studies English classes competing with the collegebound. (That scheduling problem was referred to the computers at Piedmont Tech, but with no solution.)
Finally there is the difficult scheduling problem of the specialeducation classes for the handicapped. Examples: the mentally retarded (some educatable, some merely trainable); the “severely and profoundly handicapped,” with a state maximum of six pupils per class; the physically handicapped and hearing impaired with eight per class; the emotionally disturbed and the speech impaired.
None of this is to argue that Rappahannock schools are staffed with an absolute minimum of teachers. Rather, it is an effort to help the community understand an issue raised in criticism of the school budget.
Two observations seem worth making. First, much of the course work mandated by the state — particularly in the small Special-Ed classes for the handicapped — is geared to state funding. So scrapping some courses offerings, even if permitted, would mean less-thancommensurate savings for local taxpayers.
Second, the school budget approved by the Supervisors, with its 12 percent pay raise for teachers, seems about the best that could reasonably be expected this year. But it will bring no real improvement in Rappahannock’s rockbottom standing among Virginia communities in teacher pay scales in a year in which teachers in all Virginia districts get at least the state-mandated pay raise of 10 percent. Thus, Rappahannock has only begun to compete with other communities in attracting experienced teachers. But it has begun!
CHARLES & HELEN PLATT Rock Mills
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