costs of providing these fringe benefits, are also higher

costs of providing these fringe benefits, are also higher than the 35 percent funding that is typical for Rappahannock’s share from the state. These figures amount to about 66 percent of the cost for Social Security and the retirement fund for those positions which the state supports.

However, funding of fringe benefits is a category of state aid to education which has been dropping for several years.

The amount the county receives from the state for other forms of aid comes to $138,551. If this amount and the amount received for fringe benefits is divided by the state’s estimate of 904 students expected in average daily membership, there is still an additional $881.50 per pupil that Rappahannock spends for education.

To get a handle on that difference, it is necessary to look at what is included in basic aid and compare it with what the school system actually does.

The first part of basic aid goes to fund those teachers and administrators needed for required state programs, called Standards of Quality. Using formulas to compute the maximum allowed class size the state arrives at a figure of 26.088 regular elementary teachers and 13.157 regular secondary teachers, plus 4.745 vocational education teachers needed to fund the Standards of Quality in a school system of Rappahannock County’s size. These numbers are supposed to include one librarian at each school and 1.14 elementary guidance counselors and 1.06 guidance counselors at the high school.

In fact the school system employs 26 regular elementary teachers, plus a librarian and a guidance counselor in the elementary school. Also at the elementary school are a physical education teacher, a music teacher and an art teacher whose salary is split between art and gifted education. None of these specialty teachers are required by

See FORMULA, p. 11