The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1960-04-29
School Board Report

( flce. AS trustees OF the clt1ZenS
of the County, we had the re-
sponsibility of preparing school
properties for the winter and of
keeping fire insurance in force.
Incidentally. the obligation OF
making payments on the bonded
| debt of the County for schools is
a legal obligation Of the Board
Of Supervisors. They made ap-
preparations for these debt pay
merts. but denied the requests
of the School Board for funds
with which to meet its Obliga-
tons such as those mentioned
apovc. We were not able to pay
the salary Of the Superintendent.
which was a legal as well as a
moral obligation of the County.
Without any help from the Board
of Supervisors we have now been
able to paw the School Boards
part of his salary through Janu
airy 1860. The manner in which
this has been done will be de-
scribed later in this report.
For many years all fire in
surance on school property has
been on a five-year basis. This
has meant a saving to the tax
payers of approximately 20 per
cent. When the Supervisors re-
fused our request Fer funds with
which to continue fire insurance,
our only recourse, if the insur-
ance was to be kept in force at
all, was to cancel our five-year
policies and to use the premium
credits to pay insurance for the
one year 1959-60. This was done,
resulting in a loss to the tax
payers of over $4,000. The School
Board still lacks several hundred
dollars of having enough funds
to pay even the ore-year prem
ium in full.
The Board of Supervisors de-
MED funds to the School Board
for Winterizing the school build
ings and buses. At this point the
Motley Construction Company.
Incorporated. generously offered
to pay for the cost of this winter
izing. This was done at a cost
of 1888. 1t is our firm conviction
that this money should be repaid
from public funds and that such
a need should be avoided for the
future.
All of these actions were taken
by the Board of Supervisors after
it resolved in a public statement
that only the legal minimum for
schools should be appropriated
that would guarantee school
debt amortization and safeguard
irg of school property" We be-
lieve that any good business man
will agree that the very least
that can be done to safeguard
property is to maintain reason
able insurance and protect the
property from deterioration by
action of the weather. This also
means that someone must be
available regularly to inspect
and correct airy damage or
breakage.
Activities of the School Board
and superintendent Office Since
June 1859
Since the action of the Board
of supervisors in June of 1859,
many people have asked: why
do We need School Board
and Superintendent since we
no longer have any public
schools?" Here are some of the
things that simply had to be
dore by someone The whole
matter of Winterizing the build.
ings and buses had to be
handled. The same was true Of
the question of insurance on the
buildings. Arrangements had tt
be made for preservation of the
records of the pupils and others
and for their use when needed
For example, transcripts o.
many of these records had tt
be sent to other schools upon re
quest of the pupils. The State tn
ition grant law left with the
School Board responsibility fol-
receiving applications for thest
/ grants and for certifying eligi
bility to the State Board of Edu
cation. There have been some
, applications. An annual repor
on the operation of the schools
for the year 1889 had to be
: prepared by the Superintendent
after the close of the year or
June 80, 1859. This report is re
CURED by the laws of the State
Many decisions had to be made
as to what to do with property
. located in the schools and which
was donated by some group OF
individual. Later in the year, re.
ports on social security and in.
come tax withholdings had to be
made for the employees in the
year 1889. These are merely
some of the services your School
Board and Superintendent Of
ice have performed. We remind
you that the Superintendent, the
Clerk and the members of the
School Board continued to serve
IN these essential matters with
out any assurance of compen-
SatiOn