Dr. James Merrill, Superintendent of Virginia Beach City Public Schools, spoke and answered questions at a recent meeting of representatives of the Virginia Beach Education Association. The topic: budget reductions for the 2009-2009 school year.

Earlier this month, Merrill released his Estimate of Needs to the school board. Included in the estimate was an 8% reduction in spending equating to $56.6 million in budget cuts.

Merrill explained that, though many valuable programs have been affected by the cuts, his bias in working with the budget is to protect people, and to protect jobs. If at all possible, he explained that he was working to try not to go below current funding for salaries. This hasn’t been the case in other school districts in Virginia where 400 to 500 positions have been eliminated due to budget issues.

Merrill also made clear district would not be able to increase salaries by 1.5% as reported previously. While Merrill has said that employees of the school division deserve a raise, an additional $7 million needed to be cut after presenting the raise to the school board, making the increase impossible.

The superintendent expressed his concerns that the state budget was still in flux, meaning that education could take another hit in state funding, causing the need for additional cuts to the district budget. Needed cuts for the 2010-2011 budget may be significant and more difficult if funding is reduced.

In a question and answer session after his remarks, many from the VBEA expressed their thankfulness for Merrill’s protection of people’s jobs and wages in the school system, as well as his determination not to increase class sizes. Some spoke of innovative ways where employees can be compensated with additional non-instructional time, or a decrease in the number of days school was in session (aligning with the minimum required by law). Merrill’s response to these ideas was that he would not support a decrease in the number of instructional days without a decrease in salaries. “The worst soundbite is that we’re going to pay you not to teach the 183rd day,” Merrill stressed.

Overall, I left the meeting feeling that Dr. Merrill has his priorities in order when it comes to working with the budget for the school system. Protecting the morale of employees, by protecting their jobs and wages, and not increasing class sizes should go a long way in preserving the quality of education provided to students. Spending responsibility while also preserving this quality seems to be the focus for Merrill, and that’s a good thing for the City of Virginia Beach.

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