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In other police and court news this week:
• Doris Elaine Ferguson, 33, of Rixeyville, was charged with possession of marijuana after a traffic stop at 12:10 p.m. March 1, according to Sgt. D.S. Adams of the State Police.
Ms. Ferguson was operating a 1983 Chevrolet Chevette on U.S. 211 at the Route 640 intersection when she was pulled over by Trooper S.M. Knick for speeding, said Sgt. Adams. A consent search of the vehicle revealed suspected marijuana.
School budget
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crease of $346,000, or 7.8 percent.
Most employees will have their salaries frozen under this budget. The teachers, bus drivers and teachers’ aids will not get the step increases built into their salary scales. However, they will have a 5 percent increase in take-home pay because the school system will be picking up the 5 percent that employees have been contributing to the state retirement system.
Dr. Gangel said that to add step increases for employees would cost approximately $52,000, between $46,000 and $47,000 for teachers and about $5,500 for otheremployees.
Administrators will have an increase of $1,300 each. That will mean that they receive the same supplement for having masters’ degrees that those teachers who have that degree are receiving.
Dr. Gangel said that his budgets have tried to work on different problems with pay scales in different budget years. Compared to neighboring school systems Rappahannock’s administrative pay scales rank generally at the bottom.
Also included in the budget is an increase in the amount the school system is contributing for health insurance. The county’s contribution will go from $1,119 to $1,617, an increase of $498. However, the premium for a single subscriber is expected to increase $810 from $2,315 to $3,125.
There are five and a half additional positions in the budget. The Spanish teacher will become a fulltime employee. An additional teacher will be hired for fifth grade. There will be an additional full-time special education teacher to work with learning disabled elementary school children.
A survey of parent satisfaction with the school system conducted in the fall indicated that parents were generally satisfied. However, the bus system received the most complaints. A committee was formed to find out more about parent concerns. They found that the main concerns were discipline, crowding and the length of bus rides. They also found that most of the discipline problems occurred on crowded buses with long rides. They recommended that the school system attempt to eliminate bus routes with more than 45 students on the buses and rides that were longer than 45 minutes one way.
By adding two additional bus routes next year, the school system can reduce from 14 to six the number of buses with more than 45 students assigned and from 11 to two the number of bus routes that are more than 45 minutes one way. The committee is also working on rewriting rules for behavior on the buses.
The proposed budget also includes $5,000 for a consultant to explore options for expansion.
The budget also includes $15,000 for improvements to the high school septic system, funds for additional phone lines at the schools, and funds to provide showers in the high school locker rooms.
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