Tuesday’s budget work session .' was a record setter

Tuesday’s budget work session .' was a record setter for the Rappahannock School Board. It was quick, as the board fin, ished its line item review by 11 p.m. . And it was a budget building — I not a budget trimming — exercise, ! as proposed pay increases for all school employees were upped to eight percent, adding about $28,000 - to the suggested 1988-89 spending plan presented two weeks ago by Superintendent David Gangel. ’ ■ The catalyst came from the steady decline in the relative ranking of teachers here compared with other Virginia jurisdictions. Despite •, back-to-back salary hikes of 10 perr cent, Rappahannock dropped to 128 I last year in starting salary and 132 in ; average actual salary among the ; state’s 134 divisions. *. Chairman Beverly Massie described Rappahannock’s pay raises *\‘as remarkable. “But the surrounding counties have done that much or ; more so we haven’t made a marked changed in our standing.” If the county’s teachers are given only the seven percent increase mandated by the state, “we’re going to find ourselves dropping backwards again,” said Nancy Reeve. ; “Everybody else is going to do exac*- tly the same. We need to give a little