School Board rescinds pay to play
Pay to Play in Montgomery County is dead at least for this coming school year.
The school board voted Thursday to rescind the controversial measure that would have forced parents to pay $100 per Virginia High School activities including sports, debate, theatre and yearbook.
Initially board member Penny Franklin moved the issue to be removed from the budget, while offsetting the approximately $72,000 budget revenue hole by eliminating two security guard positions at the Blacksburg Middle School site in Christiansburg and asking the county’s board of supervisors to help with the remaining deficit with a one-time appropriation. Jamie Bond seconded.
The two were the only board members to vote for the measure and it was voted down 4-to-2. Moments later, Dreama Foster offered a second motion to remove the line item while not replacing it within the budget. Instead she hoped leftover monies from this past year’s budget would offset the $72,000 hole.
In the midst of the discussion, School Superintendent Brenda Blackburn said the district should see a carryover of at least that amount.
Franklin questioned why the board was hearing that now. “In the past when we asked about possible carryover, we were told there would be none. Now, there is some.”
Blackburn responded that at this point it’s very close. “But it’s most unusual that we do not have at least that much carryover,” she said.
On the second vote, only Chair Wendell Jones and Sarah Woosley voted against rescinding the measure. It was eliminated by a 4-to-2 vote.
Joe Ivers was absent at the meeting after suffering a leg injury last week.
