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third grade. According to Mr. Estabrook, the state’s standards of quality dictate that the average class size can be no more than 25 with a maximum of 30 in any given class.
“I cannot say that this is ideal,” the superintendent said. “Nor can I say that the position the Board of Supervisors put me in is ideal. I’m trying to do the best that I can.”
“I cannot in good conscience cut two teaching positions,” responded School Board Chairman Beverly Massie, holding out the possibility that the board could, however, give concurrence on eliminating one position. But, she warned, “we'll be putting ourselves in a worse situation for next year with the Board of Supervisors.”
Mr. Estabrook agreed, adding that he had “no words of wisdom.” But, the superintendent added, “it’s certainly apparent to me that the supervisors are not interested in quality education or we wouldn’t have gotten the butchering we got!”
No one on the School Board wanted to see the 1987-88 budget cut, countered the chairman. “We presented what was, in our judgement, in the best interests of the educational progress of the students of Rappahannock.” But she maintained that the board must now “take the lumps” and adjust to the $213,234 reduction. Looking to exploding school populations in neighboring counties of Fauquier, Culpeper and Loudoun, Mrs. Massie predicted that Rappahannock’s enrollment will not continue to decline for much longer and pointed to swelling kindergarten numbers as evidence that the trend here is already beginning to reverse. Eliminating teaching positions now will create difficulties when enrollment increases and the' School Board must ask the supervisors to restore those positions, she contended.
“Over all these years, we tried to
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