Schools' budget proposal listed

The Alleghany County Board of Education approved a proposed $3,351,482 current expense budget during an April 14 special-called meeting.

The request shows a $419,883 increase when compared to the $2,931,599 that had been adopted by the school board for the 2008-09 fiscal year, which ends June 30.

The capital outlay proposal, $872,776, shows a decrease when compared to previous requests and allocations, with the largest request being the 14th of 15 payments on the Susanne Mellow building at Sparta School.

The board had been given the budget proposals at its April 7 meeting, allowing members to mull them over for a week before approving them. The budgets will be presented to the commissioners at a later date.

As the board members went over the proposals, of the current expense numbers, Superintendent Jeff Cox remarked, "The real complication to the this of course is the state budget, not knowing for sure when that will be forthcoming. The legislature has said they intend to have the budget out also by June 30. There have been years it's been July, August, September, October before we get a budget...With this budget year, I think surely the legislature and the Governor understand what we're up against. Honestly, that's going to impact decisions that are made on the local budget if we have a state budget that has cut five teacher positions, then that may impact what you and I and the rest of the school staff would think about what priorities are…"