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School Budget
The bad news last fall that the county’s Local Composite Index had been increased from .64 to .74 is now reflected in a school budget that, if the School Board approves it, will require a 10-cent real estate tax increase. ’ Adding to the frustration Superintendent David Gangel feels is the $105,000 grant the county can apply for to increase technology in the schools. He feels the money could be better spent in ordinary operating expenses. This is partly because the county already leads most of the state in the use of computers in the classroom.
No doubt the school system will eventually come up with some creative use for this money, but for the time being it is reflected in the budget as $26,300 in each school for “capital outlay new equip;! ment” and $53,000 for materials and supplies in the central office. ; Except for this mysterious outlay, very little in the proposed l school budget seems out of line. Proposed salary increases barely ukeep up with inflation. !; v_An additional frustration comes in the cost of tuition at !; CaiVer-Piedmont Technical Education Center. With Culpeper’s ; school system anticipating a drop in the number of its students ! attending the school from 211 to 136, Rappahannock is being ; asked to pick up an additional $9,000 of the cost of running the j- school. Dr. Gangel told the School Board that is only going to ;• increase when Madison County pulls out completely in the 1997!; 98 school year.
Several bills were introduced into this year’s session of the General Assembly to allow localities to appeal their Local ; Composite Index. All went down to defeat. Since the,state’s funding formulas survived a court test from some of the poorer school systems challenging the disparity in funding, assembly members are reluctant to consider any change. So the county is , stuck with a state funding formula that increasingly penalizes the ! county for having beautiful countryside that attracts wealthy new landowners.
Unfortunately less wealthy older landowners are stuck with the tax increases. .
Too much of the burden of funding education is being borne by real estate taxes, but there is no relief in sight.
94.9%