Monday, March 21, 2005

Schools To Request Twelve Percent Increase In Halifax County Funding

$1,455,384 Increase Largely Result Of Debt Service, Roof Maintenance Costs

The school board is proposing a $56,847,398 operating budget for the 2005-06 school year, a budget that would require $13.3 million in local funds.
“No matter how you look at it 66 percent of this budget is going for the instruction of children,” said Schools Superintendent Paul Stapleton.
School trustees reviewed the proposed budget at a Thursday night budget work session, with three board members, Nancy Lee Bagwell, Arthur Reynolds and Joe Bailey not present.
The budget includes $35,316,726 in state funding, an increase of 5.32 percent, $6,599,175 in federal funding, an increase of 3.53 percent, and $13,326,515 in local funding, an increase of 12.25 percent.
Chief Financial Officer Bill Covington said the need for increased funding stemmed from four areas of increased spending, personnel costs, health insurance premiums, roof repairs and debt services for Phase I school improvements.
The budget includes a 7.33 percent increase in instructional costs, a result of an average five percent raise for personnel, expected increases in health care expenses and a state mandated $166,809 increase in Virginia Retirement Service payments.
The largest increase in expenditures, however, stems from ongoing costs for roof repairs and debt service payments for Phase I renovations.
“You are getting caught in a squeeze on a couple of commitments that you can’t keep,” Stapleton told the board. “You are looking at $1.4 million for roofs and debt services.”
Last year both items were paid for using state construction money, after the board of supervisors refused to provide the $822,549 requested for roof maintenance.
“They recognized that we need to reroof a lot of rooms," said Covington. “But they did not approve our budget and went back to level dollar funding. I think it was kind of understood that it was kind of a one time deal taking the roof repairs out of the budget."
Trustees cannot continue to pay for both expenses with school capital improvement funds, according to Covington.
“If we pay our debt service on Phase I funding and roofs we are draining the fund,” he said. “In two years you will be broke.”
The capitol improvement fund had a beginning balance of $2,190,748 in 2004, that balance is currently down to $1,483,258.
“This year the state income for that will be $758,000,” said Covington, who expects expenditures for debt service and roof repair to total $1,547,790. “All of a sudden our $1.4 million is down to $600,000. And in a three year time period you will have gone from $2.1 million to $89,000.”
The most the board can expect in state construction funds each year is $782,000, Covington added.
“You are in a real catch-22 situation,” said Stapleton. “One more year and you will not have a school construction fund. One of the two figures the locality is going to have to help you with. Otherwise you really have a problem right now.
“There is no way you can pay for both,” he said. “And even if you only do one you still have no flexibility to do any of the other projects you want to get done. If you are going to have any flexibility to use state construction money for what school improvements the supervisors need to pay your debt service and you roof repairs. Otherwise if you have an emergency you are not going to have any state money to deal with it and you are going to have to go back to the local government for funds.”
Stapleton said the board never should have planned on paying the debt service with state school construction funds.
“That was the only way you could do it at the time," he said. “But the money wasn’t intended for debt service. I know that because I was the one who put it in at the state level (when he served as state superintendent of public instruction).
“You have a unique situation here because the school system built the schools with state money," he added. “In most localities schools are built by the localities with local funds."
The board unanimously agreed to continue paying the $755,747 debt service with the capital improvement fund, while asking supervisors to pay $750,000 for roof maintenance.
The request results in a 15.92 percent increase in maintenance expenditures in the proposed budget.
“We know there is no way the supervisors can help us with both so we are going to pay the debt service and ask the supervisors to help us with the roofing,’ said Stapleton.
Other expenditures include $602,911 for 10 new school buses; salaries for two new nurses’ positions and $70,000 for computerized point-of-sale equipment for all school cafeterias.
“That equipment will get the kids through the line much faster and will help with federal audits," said Assistant Superintendent Larry Clark. “It also helps the cafeteria personnel out with free and reduced lunches."
The proposed budget also reduces expenditures for administration, attendance and health by 9.23 percent.
“A large percent of our clerical personnel were classified as administration and they were not," said Stapleton. “We shifted that pool of people to instruction.
“Costs for administration, attendance and health are less than three percent (2.9 percent) of the total budget," he added.
It has hard to find such a low percent anywhere, observed Stapleton.
Local funding for the school budget has steadily decreased since 2001, according to Stapleton, with last year representing the lowest percentage the county had contributed to the school budget since 1996.
“It has not been level funding,’ said Stapleton. “The percent the county has paid has decreased every year since 2001. You have gone from over $13 million in local contribution in 2001 to $11 million last year."
Trustees are expected to vote on the proposed budget following a public hearing on April 11 at 6:30 p.m., when the board holds its monthly meeting at the Mary Bethune Complex.

 

New Teacher Salary Set $32K-$47K

Health Insurance Relief Money Set Aside In Proposed Budget

School Board members approved a new salary scale for teachers to be included in the 2005-06 budget Thursday night during a budget work session meeting at the Mary Bethune Complex.
The scale represents an average salary increase of 5 percent for all employees “from bus drivers on up,” according to Schools Superintendent Paul Stapleton, and will raise the starting teacher salary from $30,648 to $32,000.
The new salary scale was unanimously approved with members Nancy Lee Bagwell, Author Reynolds and Joe Bailey not present.
“We have tried in one scale to answer all of the teachers’ concerns,” said Stapleton. “We have gone back to a true scale.
“A five percent increase will keep you competitive with surrounding counties and will keep the people at the top of the scale happy," he told board members.
The action follows a Monday request from the Halifax Education Association to improve raises for teachers in the middle of the scale.
“We are not taking care of our teachers in the middle," HEA spokesman Bonnie Bowen told trustees during their regular monthly meeting. “You should get from the bottom to the top in a consistent manner. This can’t be something we fix overnight, but we need to start somewhere.”
“The scale was all over the board at different steps,” agreed Stapleton. “We’re equalizing the whole thing from top to bottom.”
The new scale calls for a $375 increase per step for steps one through 20.
Salaries for teachers at steps 20 through 30 would increase by $625 per step with a final raise of $1,834 at step 30.
“It would make it fair to everybody,” Stapleton told trustees. “You will have sequential steps that everyone can look at and see exactly what they are making.”
Future teacher raises would be accomplished by adjusting the starting salary, according to Stapleton.
“You can just adjust your starting salary and everything else will follow suit,” he said.
But Stapleton warned the transition to a new salary scale would result in disproportional raises in the first year.
“Everyone has to bite the bullet for one year to get it straight," he told trustees. “Some people will get a five percent increase, some will get an eight percent and an some will get a one percent. It will take a one year to level it out and it won’t change if you stick to it."
Health Insurance
The proposed 2005-06 school budget also includes funds to help provide health insurance relief for employees, setting aside $528,000 in additional funds.
Chief Financial Officer Bill Covington told trustees the additional funds would be used to either maintain or reduce the amount that employees contribute to health insurance depending on how much the premiums increased.
The board will not know the amount of the increase until this summer, according to Covington, but estimated maintaining the current employee contribution level would cost the board $150,128 if premiums increased by five percent, $300,257 for a 10 percent increase and $600,584 for a 20 percent increase.
“And that could easily happen," said Stapleton. “We could have a 20 percent increase, but we are hoping that it will be far less than that. Hopefully they (the insurance company) will be able to offer us some hope next week."
Regardless of the amount of the increase, the entire $528,000 would be used to help employees pay for insurance, according to Covington.
“If the insurance costs only go up 10 percent we could probably cut the premium employees are paying in half," he said. “It is just going to depend on the increase."
Currently the board is paying 78 percent of its employees’ health insurance premium.
Covington estimated it cost the board $485,460 to increase the amount the board covers to 90 percent if premiums increase by five percent, $623,544 if premiums increase by 10 percent and $893,775 if premiums increase by 20 percent.
Currently employees pay $83.47 per month for 10 months.
Covington noted that while that figure is an increase from previous years it is far less than the $158.71 employees were paying each month during the 2000-01 school year.

 

IDA Land Purchase Before Supes

IDA/EDA Issues Also On Tonight’s Agenda

The Halifax County Board of Supervisors are expected to consider a request from the Industrial Development Authority for a moral obligation bond to purchase the property at Virginia International Raceway that will be the site of the VIPER and JOUSTER projects.
The request will be considered as supervisors meet with the town council’s of Halifax and South Boston tonight at 6 p.m. in the public meeting room of the Mary Bethune Complex in Halifax.
During a special called meeting Friday, IDA Board members voted to request a moral obligation from supervisors not to exceed $2.5 million for the two projects.
IDA Board member Billy Royster declined to support the project, with Board member Garland Ricketts absent.
“The request is for $1.4 million property debt obligation for the JOUSTER project and $1.1 million property debt obligation for the VIPER project," Cannon wrote to supervisors in a letter requesting consideration of the proposal.
The VIPER site will be used as a national center for performance research and engineering.
The JOUSTER project will test and research unmanned ground vehicles for the Department of Defense.
If supervisors approve the request, the debt will be repayed to the IDA through a lease agreement with Danville’s Institute for Advance Learning and Research.
“Income from the lease agreement will be applied to the debt service obligations of the IDA to the lending institutions," Cannon wrote.
In the event the Institute fails to pay its rent agreement for the two projects, the IDA would request the county make the payments.
“The ‘moral obligation’ would be in an amount sufficient to satisfy annual principal and… interest associated with (the property obligations associated with VIPER and JOUSTER)," Cannon continued.
The IDA plans to purchase the property on which the two projects will be located, finance the construction and improvement costs and lease the property to the Institute.
If approved by supervisors, representatives of the IDA will negotiate a contract to purchase the property from developers A.C. Development.
The VIPER site is .77 acres and the JOUSTER property is 1.6 acres.
Financing projections submitted by the Institute suggest that the purchase of the properties will generate around $63,000 annually for the county.
Other Business
During tonight’s joint meeting, supervisors are expected to address “IDA & EDA issues."
No further information is available.
A public hearing is scheduled for 6 p.m. that, if approved, will authorize the use of the central absentee district for primaries as well as general elections.
The joint board is expected to receive updates on the water/sewer master plan study as well as the regional landfill project.
Following the joint meeting, South Boston Town Council is expected to reconvene from an earlier meeting to consider adoption of a resolution authorizing the application for a Community Development Block Grant for the Church Hill project.
Halifax Town Council is expected to reconvene to consider adoption of the Business Opportunities Incentive Program for Coach Crossing.
Supervisors are expected to convene to consider the request from the IDA for the purchase of the VIPER and JOUSTER properties.

Obituaries

Kathleen Neal Osborne

Kathleen Neal Osborne, 90, of 621 Berry Hill Road, South Boston died March 18 at Berry Hill Nursing Home.
Mrs. Osborne was born December 8, 1914, in Sylacauga, Ala., the daughter of the late Base C. Neal and Delia Townsand Neal, and was married to the late Wilford S. Osborne.
Her survivors include one daughter, Carol Osborne Burkhart of South Boston; one son, Raymond Howard Osborne of Danville; one brother, Lester Neal of South Boston; five grandchildren, Lisa Crawford, Kevin Phillips, Steven Phillips, Timothy Osborne and Pam Prevett; four great-grandchildren, Casey Crawford, Slade Prevett, Bruce Prevett and Caleb Phillips; and one great-great-grandson, Camden Crawford.
Graveside services for Mrs. Osborne were held March 20 at 2 p.m. at Oak Ridge Cemetery. The Rev. Phil Showers officiated.

Ernest Grady Thaxton Jr.

Ernest Grady Thaxton Jr., 79, of 401 Yates Street, South Boston died March 17 at the University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville.
Mr. Thaxton was born in Halifax County on August 31, 1925, the son of the late Ernest Grady Thaxton Sr. and Ola Duffie Thaxton and was married to Ida Frances Gravitt Thaxton. He was a member of Shady Grove United Methodist Church where he was chairman of the Administrative Board, was a World War II Army Veteran, and was a tobacconist with Imperial Tobacco Company.
Survivors of Mr. Thaxton include his wife; one daughter, Cynthia D. Grogan and husband, Mike, of Bakersfield, Calif.; one son, Donald Grady Thaxton and wife, Carolyn, of Raleigh, N.C.; one granddaughter, Danielle Grogan of Bakersfield; one grandson, Jeb Thaxton of Raleigh; one great-grandson, Kaedron Solorio of Bakersfield; and one sister-in-law, Elizabeth Thaxton of South Boston.
Funeral services for Mr. Thaxton were held March 20, at 3 p.m. at Shady Grove United Methodist Church with the Rev. Ray McGarr officiating. Burial followed in the church cemetery.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider Shady Grove United Methodist Church Cemetery Fund.

Harvey Wayne Vaughan

Harvey Wayne Vaughan, 47, of Wylliesburg died March 18.
Mr. Vaughan was born August 4, 1957, the son of the late James Judson Vaughan. He was Plant Manager of Cover Yarns, Inc.
Surviving are his mother and stepfather, Lillian B. and Garland Osborne of Wylliesburg; one sister, Joyce V. Amati of Wylliesburg; one stepsster, Anita B. Campbell of Richmond; one brother, Robert E. Vaughan and wife, Wanda Spain Vaughan, of Saxe; and three nieces, Anna Marie and Rebecca Lynn Amati, and Brandy Marie Campbell.
Mr. Vaughan had two years of service with Keysville Spinning Mill, two years service with Craddock Terry in Halifax, 27 years with Clover Yarns, and was past President of IMC Chapter in South Boston, Chamber of Commerce.
Funeral services were held March 20 at 2 p.m. at Hebron United Methodist Church, Wylliesburg, with burial in the church cemetery.
Those wishing to give memorials are asked to consider Hebron United Methodist Church Cemetery Fund.

Rosemarie Bachmann Oliver

Funeral services for Mrs. Rosemarie Bachmann Oliver will be held Wednesday at 2 p.m., with services at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Alton.
The Rev. Harvey Bigelow will officiate.
Burial will follow in the church cemetery.
Mrs. Oliver, of Coleman Drive in Alton, died Friday at the Halifax Regional Hospital.
She was 70.
Mrs. Oliver was born in Kaiserslautenn, Germany, on December 26, 1934, the daughter of the late Walter Bachmann and Martha Pero’n Bachmann. She was married to William Stover Oliver and was a member of the New Bethel Baptist Church in Alton.
She is survived by her husband, two daughters, Idella Rodriguez of Eden, N.C. and Denise Woodall of Turbeville, two sons, Thomas Oliver of Alton and Ralph Uwe Oliver of Fayetteville, N.C., three sisters, Edeltraudt Becker and Ursula Hoffmeier, both of Germany and Elsa Wifon of Miami Beach, Fl., one brother Hans Bachmann of Germany, nine grandchildren, two great grandchildren, one son-in-law, Placido “TitoÓ Rodriguez, and a host of other relatives and friends.

 

Olympian To Speak At Hall Of Fame Banquet

Two-Time Olympian Tisha Waller Is The Guest Speaker For Sports Hall Of Fame Induction Banquet

BY Joe Chandler
G-V STAFF WRITER

South Boston native Tisha Waller, a four-time U.S. outdoor high jump champion and two-time Olympic competitor, will be the guest speaker for the Halifax County-South Boston Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet.
This year’s Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet will be held Saturday, April 16, at 6:30 p.m. at C.H. Friend Elementary School.
A trio of outstanding athletes including noted baseball player John “Click" Smiley, and two former Halifax County High School basketball stars, Bobby Wilborn and Calvin Crews, will be this year’s inductees into the Halifax County-South Boston Sports Hall of Fame.
Advance tickets are priced at $20 each and may be purchased at several area outlets including Electric Service Company, Woodall Chevrolet, Waskey Cleaners, Edmondson Cleaners, Halifax Pharmacy, Runt’s Store, and the Gazette Virginian.
Tickets at the door on the night of the event will be $25 each.
No more than 250 tickets will be sold for the event.
Waller has twice competed in the Olympics, having first competed in the 1996 Atlanta (Ga,) Olympic Games and having competed again in last year’s Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Competing in the high jump, Waller won the U.S. Olympic trials last year but failed in her bid to qualify for the medal round in the Olympics.
In her Olympics debut in1996, she finished in a tie for ninth.
Waller, a world-class athlete, won the U.S. Olympic trials championships in both 1996 and 2004.
She has been ranked as high as number two in the world rankings.
As a senior at Halifax County High School, Waller, in 1988, became the first female athlete in the school’s history to bring a state crown to the community when she won the high jump in the Virginia High School League Group AAA State Track & Field Championships.
She still holds the high jump record at Halifax County High School.
Waller went on to attend the University of North Carolina where she won three ACC high jump championships.
The South Boston native has distinguished herself as both an athlete and a teacher.
A teacher in the DeKalb County school system in Georgia, Waller was named as Teacher of the Year in the DeKalb County school system in 1997.
In 2003, Waller was named as the recipient of the U.S. Track & Field Humanitarian award.
The citizens of South Boston and Halifax County honored Waller with a special Tisha Waller Day event on September 18 of last year, recognizing her for both her athletic and humanitarian achievements.
The Halifax County School Board has named the new track & field facility at Halifax County High School as the Tisha Waller Track & Field Center.

 

Sellers Makes It Two In A Row At SBS

Peyton Sellers Overpowered The Field To Win Saturday’s 150-Lap LMSC Race At South Boston Speedway

BY Joe Chandler
G-V STAFF WRITER

Peyton Sellers is on a hot streak.
Sellers, for the second week in a row, made it sweep, winning the pole and leading the entire distance enroute to winning the 150-lap NASCAR Late Model Stock Car race Saturday at South Boston Speedway.
The win, the third career win for Sellers, was worth $3,000.
“I sure does feel good,” Sellers said afterward.
“The car was absolutely perfect. I couldn’t have asked for anything to be any different.”
Two caution flags in the final 14 laps, one on lap 136 and another on lap 142 that created a four-lap sprint to the finish, closed up the field. But nobody, including Sellers’ closest challenger, David Triplett, Jr. of Durham, N.C., could mount a threat at the end.
“We didn’t need those late cautions,” Sellers said.
“You always have it in the back of your mind that he’s just sitting there riding and letting you get out there and be the rabbit. But our car was perfect today. I never drove the car really hard.”
Triplett said he had nothing for Sellers on the final restart.
“The only chance I had was to upset him a little bit right as we went back green,” said Triplett.
“But, after a couple of corners, he had a better car. He deserved the win. He had the better car. We had a second-place car and that’s where we came home. He had the car and that’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
Sellers drove his Chevrolet across the finish line .584 second ahead of Triplett with Wayne Ramsey of Amherst finishing third in a Ford. Jonathan Cash of Oxford, N.C., who led the Limited Sportsman division with 11 wins while finishing second in the points standings last year, drove to a fourth-place finish. Scott Worley of Long Island rounded out the top five finishers.
Seventeen-year-old Drew Herring of Benson, N.C., Jason Dickerson of Ruckersville, Rodney Cook of Reidsville, N.C., Ernest Winslow of Scotland Neck, N.C. and Owen Miller of Emporia, driving the Chevrolet owned by Dolly Fallen of South Boston, rounded out the top ten finishers, all of whom finished on the lead lap.
Sellers had little trouble in staying well ahead of his challengers.
After the day’s first caution he needed only 15 laps to power to a half a straightaway lead over Triplett and Brandon Butler of Petersburg. Even with the help of several caution flags, neither could keep pace with Sellers as he easily stayed several car lengths ahead of his challengers.
Butler started third and ran third, right on Triplett’s heels, all day until his Chevrolet lost power and went dead while the field was under caution for the day’s fourth mishap, a spin by Richard Storm, on lap 97.
“We don’t really know what happened,” Butler said.
“The car was running pretty good. We certainly didn’t have anything for Peyton. David and I were just kind of riding there together. The thing just cut off and quit running. We don’t know if the motor broke or whether it’s an ignition problem. We’ll go home, work on it and come back next week.”
Sellers said he felt bad for Butler, a driver that he feels will be one of his toughest challengers for the track championship.
“They’re on their “A” game every week,” Sellers said.
“ Stuff like that is out of their control. I hate it for them. But, we have to capitalize on everything that went wrong for other people today and put the points on the board.”
The third-place finish by Ramsey, who was driving a Ford owned by Randy Taylor, marked one of his better days at South Boston Speedway since picking up a win last season.
“This is only the second time I’ve sat in this car,” Ramsey noted.
“We were close. If we could have gotten off the corners a little better I think we could have been right up there running with Peyton. I’m tickled to death with a third-place finish the first time out in the car.”
The exciting racing of the day was the battle for fourth place involving Herring, Cash, Dickerson and Worley.
Cash, who started tenth and moved to eighth place at the halfway point, made a big charge in the late stages to grab fourth place in only his second start in the Late Model Stock Car ranks with Worley riding the top groove to grab fifth place.
Sellers averaged 61.016 mph in the race that was slowed by seven caution periods for 39 laps.

Comets Varsity Girls Soccer Team Wins Home Opener

HCHS Downed Prince Edward County 4-1 Here Friday Night

BY Joe Chandler
G-V STAFF WRITER

It may not have been pretty but the Halifax County High School varsity girls soccer team picked up the win nonetheless.
With the help of two goals from freshman Lacy Will, the Comets won the regular-season home-opener Friday night, downing Prince Edward County 4-1.
“It’s always good to get the first win," said Comets coach Sid Young.
“It wasn’t pretty but we got a win under our belt."
Sophomore Emily Bowen got the Comets’ first goal of the contest, scoring on a direct kick from 20 to 25 yards out with nine minutes and 34 seconds left in the first half.
Bowen took a pass from Will and was dribbling across the field to the right side when she let loose with a shot that curved into the goal just over the head of Prince Edward goalkeeper.
That goal was the only goal scored in the first half of the contest and it gave the Comets a 1-0 lead at intermission.
The Comets got going quickly in the second half with freshman Melissa Smith scoring a goal at the six minute mark with the help of an assist by Will.
About five minutes later, Prince Edward County scored on a direct kick that came from between 30 and 40 yards out to cut the Comets’ lead to a single goal at 2-1.
A short time later, at about the 15-minute mark of the second half, Will broke through the Prince Edward defense and scored to push the Comets’ lead back to two goals.
Finally, at about the 34-minute mark, Will tacked on an insurance goal, taking a pass from Bowen to set up the shot.
Young noted that the Comets did not play particularly well in the first half but came back with better play in the second half.
“We missed two days of practice last week and you could tell it," Young said.
“In the first half it looked like we were poorly organized. We were playing several people out of position due to the injury to Julia Rogers. We played much better in the second half and got the job done."
The Comets outshot Prince Edward County by a wide margin, getting off a total of 23 shots in the contest, 12 of which came in the first half. Prince Edward County, by contrast, got off only seven shots at the Comets’ goal.
Halifax County goalkeeper Libby Austin had a good night, logging seven saves in the contest.
“Our defenders played pretty well," said Young.
“We did a pretty good job on defense. Our defenders were always hustling. We still have some work to do there, though."
Young said the win was a good one as the Prince Edward County team was similar to the Comets in the makeup of its roster.
“Prince Edward has three seniors and two juniors and the rest of their roster of 18 players are freshmen and sophomores," noted Young.
“They were tough last year. We won 2-1 up there and we played to a 1-1 tie here. With the roster they have, they should be pretty tough in the next couple of years."