City school officials’ wish list presented

WINCHESTER — City school officials have presented some preliminary fiscal year 2014 budget proposals, including a salary increase for employees and a request for 21 additional teachers.

Officials discussed the potential expenditures during a Finance Committee meeting in the Central Administrative Office Friday.

Early numbers show that the division’s proposed expenditures in FY 2014 will be about $52 million — up $3.5 million from FY 2013. The revenue numbers are unknown.

The proposed budget includes a 2.4 percent salary increase for employees, at a cost of $810,000.

As part of the budget process, School Board members review division-wide requests.

For FY 2014, $1.9 million in personnel requests have been proposed, including ones for more teachers. Last year, city school officials asked for 21 additional teachers, but four were hired.

Among this year’s requests are:

Two English as a Second Language teachers at Quarles and Virginia Avenue Charlotte DeHart elementary schools.

Two technology-resource teachers at Frederick Douglass Elementary School and Quarles to help close the digital divide among economically disadvantaged students.

An Air Force ROTC instructor at Handley High School.

Two math specialists at the elementary level to train teachers and help struggling students with the increased rigor on Standards of Learning tests.

Most of the requests are due to a steady increase in student enrollment and the need to expand and grow programs.

Other requests include:

Two bus drivers to accommodate additional students and routes.

A network engineer to work on the expanding wireless network and the increasing number of computer systems and applications.

Two administrators — a coordinator for testing at Handley (with the potential to become division-wide) at a cost of $60,000, which includes salary and benefits; and a coordinator for Career and Technical Education at Handley at a cost of $112,900, to help expand that program.

According to Schools Superintendent Rick Leonard, the coordinator for testing is meant to keep up with the increase in division tests along with Advanced Placement tests, SATs and PSATS.

“More and more tests are happening,” he said.

The coordinator will also determine assessment needs of the school.

A public hearing on the division’s budget will be held in March, and the spending plan is scheduled to be adopted in early April.

— Contact Rebecca Layne at rlayne@winchesterstar.com