Education board members oppose setting a single ratio for all school support staff

Virginia Board of Education members said yesterday that they back creating ratios for the number of state-funded school support staffers to instructional employees.

But they do not like the idea of a single ratio for all support employees, a broad category that ranges from nurses to bus drivers to assistant superintendents.

This year, state lawmakers agreed with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's plan for a funding cap in 2010 of one support position per 4.03 instructional positions funded through the Standards of Quality, which outline the basic requirements for public education in Virginia.

That cap saved about $340.9 million in salaries and benefits from roughly 13,000 positions, beginning in fiscal 2010.

The standards define minimum staffing for instructional personnel, but there is no such ratio for secretaries, attendance clerks, custodians, maintenance workers, curriculum specialists and others. Lawmakers asked the Board of Education for its view on the appropriateness of establishing a ratio for those jobs.

"There's such an incredible variety of positions that to put forth one suggestion to cover all positions would be completely impossible," said board member Eleanor Saslaw. "To design a ratio that could apply to all positions would be completely impossible to do."

Board President Mark E. Emblidge said members want more time to study how the ratios should be set for various positions. Individual school needs vary enormously depending on factors like size, location and student composition.

The state is strapped for cash, and keeping the support-staff cap rather than funding all support positions would save the state $376 million in fiscal 2011. The difference would grow to $378 million in fiscal 2012, for a two-year total of $754 million, according to preliminary estimates by the Department of Education.

The state funnels between $5.5 billion and $6 billion to schools under the standards.

Yesterday's proposed staffing-ratio approach comes amid more comprehensive suggested alterations to the standards, which will be subject to public comment through Oct. 4. The board will hold four public hearings across the state on Sept. 30 in Chesapeake and Richmond and in Fairfax and Pulaski counties.

Also yesterday, the board approved guidelines for student career and academic plans. Next school year, schools will start developing personal academic and career plans for every seventh-grader, outlining the student's program of study for high school and aligning it with a career path or college.

Contact Olympia Meola at (804) 649-6812 or .