BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE
The King George County School Board needs to shave $340,000 from the division’s budget this year.
But first, board members need to learn just where the money goes.
At a Monday night meeting, King George school officials looked at six months’ worth of check records.
School Board members could see the dates, amounts and recipients of the checks.
But the log doesn’t tell why the checks were written.
Some are obvious—a large check to Dominion Power is most likely the electric bill. But what about checks to Fairfax County Public Schools, Food Lion or individual school employees?
School Board members asked the finance department for more specific numbers—and to review the check registers each month.
“We can’t do what we need to do if we can’t get these budget numbers on a monthly basis,” board member Rick Randall said.
And a monthly review could prevent surprises such as the announcement that school employees would not receive the expected 2 percent raise this month.
The School Board decided Jan. 9 to delay those raises, just weeks before school employees expected to see their paychecks increase.
Many employees had already included the raises in their personal budgets, said bus driver John Day.
“Who would have thought a School Board would renege on their word?” he asked at Monday’s meeting. Nine people came out to protest the raise delay.
The School Board decided to put off the raises after learning that the division faced a $340,000 deficit.
Some $140,000 of that comes from unexpected special education costs.
But many of those costs show up in the monthly check register, under checks written to speech therapy clinics. In December, those checks amounted to more than $20,000.
A close look at the register—especially if it were coded—could have given a warning that the deficit was quickly increasing.
And now, School Board members are demanding more information so they can figure out how to bridge the gap.
The School Board will meet again Jan. 30, and interim Superintendent Stanley Jones said the members would have better numbers before the meeting.
“We need to save wherever we can,” he said.
“We agree,” Kristin Tolliver said. “But we need to know what those places are first.”
The School Board also will meet with county supervisors Tuesday to talk about the shortfall. The Board of Supervisors has offered to help the School Board provide the expected raise for employees.
But supervisors said they also hope to hear the School Board’s ideas for solving the bridging the budget gap.
Amy Flowers Umble: 540/735-1973
aumble@freelancestar.com
