Nfk. school budget meeting falls short

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - If the Norfolk school board was looking for a passing grade on its budget proposal from those who attended the meeting Wednesday night, it didn't get it.

Frustrated parents, teachers and Norfolk public school staffers voiced concerns over the cuts to fill a $40 million hole during a packed public hearing at Norview Middle School.

"It's not just going to have an impact on our children for the coming year, but for years to come," says Marian Flickinger, president of the Norfolk Federation of Teachers.

The budget proposal includes cutting more than 400 positions, of those 135 are teacher positions. Flickinger told the board to cut at the bottom before touching the classroom.

"We had a study--we are very top heavy in administration and we don't see any evidence that much has been done in reducing the configuration of that group."

ODU student Rudee Sherburne came to offer his support. Along with his mother, he is concerned over the elimination of at risk programs--programs he used successfully as a student at Granby High School.

"It gave me something to work on, it wasn't just sitting their looking at textbooks and doing homework," he said.

WAVY.com learned the city of Norfolk only contributed 33.4 percent of its budget to schools last year. That's considerably less than Virginia Beach at 47 percent and Chesapeake at 45 percent. Parents want to see pupils before projects.

"Strong schools are as much apart of our economic development as hotels and trains," said one mother.

The school board is set to vote on the budget March 24 at 6 p.m. at Granby High School. The city will get it April 1.