"It is just a difficult year and difficult decisions are going to have to be made,” says Roanoke County Superintendent Dr. Lorraine Lange.
A possible ten million dollar budget shortfall is the challenge Roanoke county school leaders are facing when it comes to balancing the school budget. School board member Mike Stovall says, this is the worst budget year he has seen.
"A lot has to do with VRS, a lot has to do with no revenues, a lot has to do with no sales tax. there is just a lot that goes into the recipe,” says Stovall.
Roanoke county schools will have to pay 5 million dollars to VRS and will only get 300 thousand dollars in state money. That doesn't including the reductions from the county which could be between 1.5 to 2.5 million dollars.
At a work session, Lange and the school board met to look at options for making up for the shortfall, including not giving employees a 3 percent raise.
"Everything is on the list,” says Lange.
One option school leaders are looking at is consolidating five elementary schools. But it's an option that has been discussed in years past. So we asked school leaders is this a viable option.
“Well it is on the list as something we might be able to do,” says Lange.
"I will not close school and i will not lay off employees to give a raise,” says Stovall.
"Hopefully we will not have to close any schools, hopefully there would be enough money we could give some type of raise to our employees, but again we just don't know,” says school board member Fuzzy Minnix.
Since school officials don't know how much money they will have to work with, school officials say no decision will be made on how to the fix the growing shortfall.
Schools on the list for possible consolidation include Fort Lewis, Mason’s Cove, Mount Pleasant, Clearbrook, and Back Creek.
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