The King George School Board members this week agreed that they needed a lot more information about current-year finances before they can make decisions regarding a proposed budget request for 2012-13.

At the meeting on Jan. 23 they said they needed lots of details about the current year’s budget as a starting point for next year’s request. (See related article elsewhere in this issue about

What began as a simple gesture of goodwill, through Facebook, exploded into a viral mechanism of community empowerment.  Soon after a former King George High School student posted the statement “You must be from King George/Dahlgren if (fill in the blank)” Facebook entries grew from former students remembering teachers to posting old photos of the old KGHS, currently called old King George Elementary

Higher budget proposal despite fewer students

The King George School Board is faced with a proposed budget for 2012-13 that asks for nearly $3,000,000 more from the county despite fewer students.

The state is projecting an average daily membership (ADM) of 116 fewer students than the division will likely end up with in the current year.

Interim superintendent Stanley Jones released a line item budget proposal a couple of days after he provided highlights in his presentation last week at a meeting on Jan. 9.


NO ACTUAL EXPENDITURE FIGURES PROVIDED     
Jones’s budget book does not provide any actual expenditure figures for the current year nor for any previous years.

That makes it a nearly impossible task for the newly reconstituted School Board to determine a base line. The School Board has three new members - Kristin Tolliver, John Davis and Ken Novell - who took office less than three weeks ago, and two members - Rick Randall and Mike Rose - who were not provided a finance report at a meeting for at least the last year.

But Jones is new, too. He’s working with what was left him by former superintendent Candace Brown when she left in December.

A second difficulty in examining the 2012-13 budget proposal is that it is based on the current year’s budgeted revenues, which must be adjusted downward due to the lower enrollment issue.

The proposed 2012-13 budget might be compared to the current unadjusted adopted budget, which is posted online at the division’s website. It might be more easily compared, if portions of it were not in a

The King George Board of Supervisors unanimously voted on Jan. 3 to implement 2 percent raises effective with the first pay period this month. The last time county employees received a pay hike was four years ago, in January 2008.  
That’s because raises that had been budgeted for 2008-09 to go into effect in January 2009 were cancelled in December 2008 in the face of budget deficits being experienced due to the beginnings of the sliding economy.
Like most other localities across the state at that time, King George had made cuts and postponed expenditures due

This week (following our press time) the newly constituted memberships of both the King George Board of Supervisors and the School Board will hold separate meetings on Tuesday, Jan. 3.

In addition to setting meeting schedules for the year, and electing chairmen and vice chairmen, both boards are also expected to set additional meeting dates to tackle finances in the still uncertain economy.

Supervisors are slated this week to review the budget for the remainder of the current 2011-12 fiscal year and

Those old enough to remember the hit comedy series “The Beverly Hillbillies” might recall that the patriarch of the Clampett Clan, Jed, was out “shooting’ up at some food when up from the ground came a bubblin’ crude.”

Unfortunately, oil (that is ‘Texas tea and black gold’) isn’t quite that available about the Northern Neck of Virginia.  But those currently seeking it believe there is some under our terra firma but getting it might be an economic gamble.

In the oil business it is called “wildcatting” and it is somewhat synonymous with putting a $50 bet on the Virginia Lottery’s Mega Million in hopes of hitting the jackpot.  However, Stan Sherrill, land manager of the Shore Exploration and Production Corp., which is hunting the precious fossil fuel in King George, thinks it’s worth it.

The last official act of the current King George School Board at its final meeting of the year was a personnel action that included reassigning Supervisor of Special Services J. Patrick Nealon from the School Board office to a teaching position at the middle school for learning disabled students, with no downgrade in pay.

The word around the division for the last two weeks has been that Nealon would be “gone” by January. He’s been a magnet for increasing criticism over his five years in

The King George Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on ordinance amendments that would update language in Chapter 3, Article II of the King George County Code to conform to current state law and simplify language.

The state law reference in the Code of Virginia is Section 3.2-6546. The section of county code is in regard to Animal Control, Section 3-28, “Redemption or other disposition of impounded