School budget gets board approval

Bedford County Board of Education voted Thursday night to approve the school system budget for 2009-2010. The budget will now be submitted to the county's Financial Management Committee and ultimately the County Commission for approval.

The general fund budget includes $49,685,766 in expenses; the child nutrition fund will spend $4,097,235; and the school-age care program will spend $491,122. No property tax increase is being requested.

The budget includes the opening of the new Learning Way Elementary School and a new stand-alone building for Community High School. It includes two new principals, an assistant principal, and other new positions. No local salary increases are included except for a small increase in the locally-funded portion of teacher salaries required by the county's contract with Bedford County Education Association, the teacher's union.

The budgets approved Thursday night were updated from the ones which had been considered by the school board in a study session the week before, and they draw down more money from fund balances.

Board members were told there's no guarantee that the state will approve the budget under its maintenance of effort guidelines. The state has a complex formula to determine whether a local government is decreasing its support for education at the same time the state is increasing its support. If the state finds that local education funding is being cut, it can disallow the budget and force the local school system and county government to come up with a new one.

Declining local tax revenues, due to the economy, might put the county at risk of failing maintenance of effort guidelines, according to discussion Thursday night.

Gray's contract extended

The school board also voted Thursday night to extend the contract of School Superintendent Ed Gray by two years, until June 30, 2011.

On paper, Gray will receive a salary increase, but he agreed to waive the increase for the coming fiscal year due to the economy and the fact that other county employees are not getting any increase. He wil also waive any automatic increases due to growth in student population as provided for by a state formula.

Gray's current salary is $95,000 per year. The new salary will be $110,000 per year, which school board members said is still low compared to comparably-sized nearby school systems.

"We're getting a great bargain to have Ed work with us," said School Board Chairman Barry Cooper. He said only Lawrence County, among nearby counties, pays less.

Board member Dixie Parker called Gray "overworked and underpaid" and member Amy Martin noted that he has responsibility not only for the employees of the system but for the education of 7,600 students.

Building program

The board got its monthly report on the progress of Community High School. Several change order requests were presented by the construction management firm, American Constructors, but the county's construction manager, Bud Melson, asked that some of them be deferred a month so that he could have a chance to review them.

School board members defended the construction of a rear entrance from the school to U.S. 41-A, saying it was essential to helping cope with traffic problems at the facility.

Boosters of the Central High School soccer program asked for permission to construct a press box and concession stand at the soccer field. The board granted its permission.