‘Rogue’ comments by CC school board member backfire at budget presentation for supervisors

After Charles City superintendent of schools Janet Crawley presented the FY 2014-15 proposed budget to the county’s board of supervisors on March 20, supervisors’ chairman Bill Coada asked if any other school board members wanted to speak. Apparently, at-large Steve Fuhrmann had a lot on his mind.

Fuhrmann addressed supervisors at the joint work session, voicing his concern over the $10 million proposed budget for schools for the upcoming year.

“I feel like it’s a necessity to comment about the budget,” Fuhrmann said, implicating it weighed on his mind since the school board approved it at the March 18 work session. “I voted no on this budget for a number of reasons.”

Fuhrmann read a list of four items explaining his disapproval of the proposed budget. Among the reasons include his belief that the budget lacks a focus on instruction, his concern about the reduction of pre-kindergarten, the elimination of enrollees to Governor’s schools, and an estimate that funds may be reduced by supervisors was completely ignored.

“Most schools in the state are operating with a 65 percent of the budget designated to instruction,” continued the school board member. “We need to have a serious, serious discussion about the schools as adults in what the budget should be.”

After Fuhrmann’s monologue, Coada questioned the school board member’s figures and research.

“How does the Virginia Department of Education view and score the proposed budget as far as percent dedicated to instruction?” questioned the supervisor.

“According to my numbers based from the state report card instruction, this rates as 55.8 percent,” responded the Fuhrmann.

Coada, however, reiterated his question, directing the board member to answer the question on the state’s view of the numbers.

“Dr. Fuhrmann, I appreciate the information you gave us, but I don’t want you to say ‘my’ in your answer,” said Coada. “I want to know how the state views this.”

With the board member unable to answer the question, Fuhrmann stormed away from the podium in furor, reiterating his numbers were correct. Coada redirected his question to Crawley in an attempt to receive a definitive answer.

“This budget is 57 percent based on the federal definition of instruction and it’s 66.8 percent based on the Virginia Department of Education’s definition of instruction,” she responded, pointing to how both the state and federal entities’ definitions differ. “Virginia is a lot stricter when it comes to the definition of instruction.”

School interim finance director Ray Watson chimed in, explaining to county representatives the state report card used by Fuhrmann in his calculations.

“The Virginia report card is trailing the budget we’re working with by two years,” Watson said. “The numbers used by the Virginia Department of Education and its definitions designates our budget at nearly 67 percent for instruction.”

Obviously embarrassed, school board chairwoman Helen Payne-Jones addressed county supervisors.

“I want to apologize to the board for my colleague going rogue,” she said, referencing Fuhrmann’s speech. “This was an issue that was voted on the board and to think Dr. Fuhrmann would use this public forum as a platform was unnecessary.

“Apparently, having his name in the minutes and showing that he voted against it was not enough,” the chairwoman concluded.

Coada commented at the end of the meeting on the supervisors’ intentions to find as many funds possible for schools.

“As I told you in our meeting last week, we are working to find all the money that we can,” said Coada. “We’re looking at next year and monitoring this year’s situation and will do everything that we can.”

Supervisors will get their first look at the proposed 2014-15 budget at the March 25 regular meeting.