Schools will seek about $2.3 million from county

Alleghany County Schools will seek about $2.3 million in local funds for the operation of schools in the next fiscal year, 2004-05.

The proposed local budget includes some requests for additional school personnel and replacing the 36-year-old flat roof at Alleghany High School.

These funds are requested of the county government, and are used along with state and federal funds to operate the schools. This year the county government's share is about 17 percent of the schools' total budget , said Finance Officer Karen Leys.

About 74 percent comes from state funds and about 9 percent comes from federal funds.

The local budget proposal includes $1.8 million in current expense funds, which go toward personnel paid from county funds, classroom supplies and other day-to-day expenses.

The capital outlay budget, which goes toward facilities and equipment, totals $516,618.

The proposal was approved 4-0 by school board members at their May 5 meeting. Board member Steve Carpenter was absent.

The proposal will be presented to county commissioners, but Leys said a date hasn't been set. The new fiscal year begins July 1.

Current Expense

The current expense budget is about 15 percent higher than what schools received from the county government in the current (2003-04) year, according to the proposal.

"We feel if we don't ask [and inform] the educational community and county commissioners of our needs, we're not doing our job prop Statewide calendar opposed

The Alleghany Board of Education voted May 5 to voice opposition to a movement afoot in North Carolina to make all school systems follow the same calendar statewide.

Superintendent Duane Davis said school officials mostly in the eastern part of the state and Raleigh want legislation that would create a uniform calendar for all school systems.

"It would take away the right of school boards to make their own calendars," he said.

Presently, calendars for each school year are set by local school personnel and the board of education.

This allows mountain counties like Alleghany to deal with snow days that other parts of the state don't experience, he said.

Others elsewhere in the state want a uniform calendar that shifts the opening of school until late August or after Labor Day, Davis said.

Their reasoning is that students could work in the tourism industry and a later tourism season would bring in more money to the eastern counties. Davis said he believes their reasoning is incorrect.

Families decide what they can spend on summer vacations based on what they can afford, and extending the season would not make them spend more, Davis reasoned.

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