Schools trim 117 jobs for next year

The Hanover County School Board approved a $205.5 million budget last night for the next school year that includes 117 fewer positions.

School Superintendent Stewart D. Roberson's financial plan holds off on purchases such as new buses and computers, reduces the central office and all school budgets by 12.5 percent, and halts any new programs or initiatives that already have been funded. Existing programs -- including an elementary stringed-instrument program that parents asked the board to keep in the budget -- also will be cut. Class sizes will increase at all levels by one student, and classes with fewer than 10 students will be eliminated or collapsed into other classes.

The positions marked for elimination include 52 regular-education teachers, 10 special-education teachers and 38 part-timers in transportation and support. Seventeen vacancies will go unfilled.

The board also approved $153 million in capital improvements over 10 years.

Though the board approved the budget, which is 5.4 percent less than the current budget, Roberson warned that events between now and mid-April could change it dramatically. The board likely will know how much money it is getting from the state at the end of this month and will know how much local money it will receive in early April. Also, later this month and in March, school registrations will show whether the board needs to adjust its staffing.

Roberson also said changes could be coming if the school system gets federal stimulus funding from the county.

Board member Sue Forbes Watson said this likely is the toughest budget process she has ever seen. The board faced a $15 million shortfall coming into last night's meeting. Member Robert L. Wood echoed Watson's remarks and said cutting programs and limiting expansion of new programs "is not the Hanover way."

The school budget now will go to the Board of Supervisors.

Contact Holly Prestidge at (804) 649-6945 or .