Budget needs solution

Budget needs solution

The Rappahannock County School Budget needs to be

brought under control. If our neighboring Culpeper County can educate their children for $5,600 per pupil per year compared to Rappahannock County’s $9,000 per pupil per year then we have serious problems that may have started 30 years ago, when our county embarked on a slow growth path.

As we all know we have to depend on our surrounding counties and towns for vital services such as employment, housing, shopping, etc. that are not available to us here in Rappahannock County. Our neighbors are profiting from our dependence on them utilizing taxes they collect to provide services to their citizens and to support their school systems.

The town of Warrenton has reduced taxes for the sixth straight year. Several new restaurants opening in the past year has enabled the town to do this. (Fauquier Citizen, March, 15 2001)

According to the census numbers released on March 9, Rappahannock County’s population is 6,983. It’s population 1990 was 6,622, a gain of 361 people. (Culpeper Star Exponent, March, 9 and Fauquier Citizen, March 15.)

According to a letter dated March 19, I received from the School Board the total school enrollment for 1990 was 947. The total school enrollment for 2000 is 1,020, a gain of 73.

The county’s contribution to the School Board budget is $6,481,979.04 which is more than $1.3 million or 25.52 percent greater than last year. For 1999 our school enrollment was 1,034. We had a drop of 14 pupils and our School Budget went up $1.3 million.

In Culpeper News, about town, it was mentioned that the Fauquier County School Board recently gave its superintendent a ten percent pay raise, bringing his salary to $107,415. One of Rappahannock’s School Board members told me that Dallas Johnson’s salary is about $6,000 more than our Superintendent David Gangel. Dallas Johnson is responsible for 16 schools, our superintendent is responsible for two.

According to Rapplinks “What will we be paying them”, by Sharon S. Kilpatrick May, 16, 2000, we have a position for associate principal for the middle school. I did not as a taxpayer know that we had a middle school.

Rappahannock County has been indulging in minimal growth policies for years while the technology revolution has been growing and our neighboring counties have taken advantage and profited. The small population does not lend itself to efficiency, including the school system. The cost of education goes up but the revenue sources available to Rappahannock County are limited to our taxpayers.

It has been 168 years since Rappahannock County was split off from Culpeper County, due mainly to the transportation problem of commuting by horse and buggy. Today transportation and communications have been solved. Maybe we should consider a merger back to our past with Culpeper.

We are dependent on Culpeper for services now so why not eliminate the duplication and let Culpeper with efficiency and experience take over schools and other county services. Maybe another solution is to privatize our schools similar to other privatization being done in government.

With the above information in mind, can you blame our teachers and our deputies for leaving Rappahannock County to find jobs elsewhere since it is almost impossible to afford to live in Rappahannock County and no incentive contemplated to induce them to stay.