Want to become of a fan of the Chesterfield County schools? Now you can. People have started following the 58,000student school system as it makes the leap to the Internet’s Facebook and Twitter social networks. “More people are going online to get their news,“ said Shawn Smith, an assistant director for community relations for the school system, whose department was in charge of creating the Twitter and Facebook accounts.

More than a dozen of the area’s top educators and business and civic leaders met yesterday to begin work on a new approach to education in central Virginia: collaboration. The members of the “Bridging Richmond” partnership pledged to work together to assimilate a wide variety of programs—dealing with academics, social issues and health concerns, among other things—already in place.

The Chesterfield County School Board has postponed tonight’s meeting to approve its $551.4 million budget until next Tuesday. A work session before the meeting has been canceled. The board decided to defer its vote on the budget to wait for the General Assembly’s action on the state budget this week. Last week, Superintendent Marcus J. Newsome announced that he would be restoring 150 positions into his proposed budget by reshuffling some funds from other areas. Employees, parents, students and community members have encouraged county and school officials not to lay off teachers and support staff members.

A recently formed coalition of parents has called for restoration of 100 percent of extra funding for five high-poverty schools and additional departmental cuts and furlough days for staff to save some teaching jobs. “There are opportunities for the board to consider in the coming weeks,“ said Don Hall, a member of Chesterfield Citizens for Excellence in Education, “opportunities that our group will explore and make recommendations on, also.“

Chesterfield school superintendent Marcus J. Newsome plans to announce the restoration of some funds and jobs to the budget proposal.

The Chesterfield County School Board will meet today to talk about teacher and supportstaff cuts proposed in the $551.5 million budget for the 2010 fiscal year. Also on the agenda are discussions on state legislation about an early-retirement incentive program for teachers and $23.1 million expected to come from the national economic-stimulus package. School officials don’t know whether the school system can use that money to offset current budget cuts or if it will be earmarked for specific spending.

Chesterfield County School Superintendent Marcus J. Newsome today will offer specific proposed cuts to make up for a $52 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year. Newsome, who will present his 2009-10 budget to the School Board, has painted a grim picture for funding in next school year’s budget cycle. He has repeatedly said that everything that is not required—including personnel—is on the chopping block.