With less than one month until the
New Year, fear and tension over budgets
is palpable everywhere from our national
capital to the MLWGS Board
Room.

MLWGS, which is funded by state
and local tax dollars, may well be affected
as these governments finalize
their budgets.

“They [the localities that send students
to MLWGS] can’t afford to not
look at everything carefully,” said Regional
Board Chairman Ivan Mattox of
Goochland. “This may mean putting
Maggie Walker on the chopping block.”

In the coming weeks, MLWGS Administration
and Regional Board will
develop a school budget for the 2009
fiscal year.

“We get money from two sources,
the school division and the state. The
concern that we have is that if the state
cuts our money and cuts money from the
school divisions, then the school divisions
will cut their funding to us,” said

MLWGS Director Mr. Doug Hunt. “We
could get hit from two sides.”

Governor To Reveal State Budget
On December 17, a joint session of
the Virginia General Assembly will convene
at the newly-renovated capitol to
receive Governor Kaine’s proposed state
budget.

With a multi-billion dollar state deficit,
next year’s budget will include severe
reductions, potentially in the area of
K-12 education.

Mr. Charles Pyle is the Director of
Communications at the Virginia Department
of Education (VDOE).

“The budget situation has certainly
been widely discussed and the prospect
of K-12 cuts is definitely on the table,”
said Pyle. “The Governor has said that,
members of the legislature have said
that, and the state superintendent has
advised schools that K-12 is on the table
this time.”

Roughly 65 percent of MLWGS
funding comes from the state, either
directly or through allocations from municipal
gifted education budgets.

In most public school systems, however,
the state provides an amount closer
to 55 percent of the necessary funding
for “quality education,” while localities
provide the additional 45 percent. The
term “quality education” refers to the
Commonwealth’s basic standard of “cost
-effective and capable training for tomorrow’s
workforce.”

In a recent Jabberwock interview, a
local expert in state politics, who asked
not to be named, alluded to a potential re
-evaluation of the need for gifted programs.

“One idea is to reconsider what
makes up the criteria for this quality
education,” said the state politics insider.

“I’ve heard another proposal to divide
that [gifted education] funding burden
equally, with more payment from the
localities.”

VDOE’s spokesman shared a similar
prediction.

“We really won’t know what the
consequence might be overall or for programs
like the Governor’s School,” said
Mr. Pyle. “Any of the programs that are
not part of the foundational, basic, general
education plan may be considered
for cuts.”

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings
In response to budget woes,
MLWGS hosted three funding-related
meetings on December 2.

The first, a monthly financial administrative
meeting, brought in the CFO’s
from MLWGS four largest localities to
provide advice on financial issues and
next year’s school budget.

“The meeting was to determine how
much money they [the localities] will
send us,” said Mr. Hunt.

Meanwhile, in the boardroom, directors
of Virginia’s 18 Academic Year
Governor’s Schools gathered for their
first of three scheduled meetings this
year.

Appomattox Regional Governor’s
School (ARGS) is the arts and science
equivalent of MLWGS, located in Petersburg.
ARGS Director Dr. James
Ruffa spoke of the measures he has
taken to make ends meet at his school.

“For the current year, we’re very
concerned that the revenue we anticipated
may not materialize,” said Dr.
Ruffa.

“In times like these, if you cut per-
sonnel you might not be able to replace
them later, so we have initiated cutbacks
on things like field trips, transportation,
and staff conferences,” said Dr.
Ruffa.

The budget crisis has prompted Virginia’s
Governor’s Schools to search for
outside revenue sources.

“We’re more active in trying to get
private money through our foundation,”
said Dr. Ruffa. “Anything that can be
offloaded from the general budget will
help.”

At the same time, parents of Governor’s
School students from across the
state met for a Friends of Virginia’s
Governors School (FOVGS) planning
session.

FOVGS is a volunteer organization
that works to ensure funding and support
for Virginia’s three full-day and fifteen
half-day Governor’s Schools, which are
scattered throughout the state.

MLWGS parents Ms. Sara Hillgrove
and Ms. Martha Young led the meeting
during which parents began planning for
a January 29 FOVGS “Day at the Capitol,”
an annual event where students and
parents meet with legislators to ask for
continued funding.

“We’re discussing what we know so
far. If we stay proactive and have some
public hearings, maybe we can avoid the
worst,” said Ms. Young. “Our main
work begins when the appropriations
committees meet and that’s when we go
[ to the Capitol].”

The conclusions of the MLWGS
budget meeting and the FOVGS gathering
will be presented to the Regional
Board during its regularly scheduled
meeting on Thursday, December 18 at 9
am.

The December Regional Board meeting
will come only hours after Governor
Kaine officially announces the statewide
budget cuts. It is likely that much
of this meeting will focus on the question
of funding for MLWGS.

Optimism Remains in Midst of
Potential Budget Cuts
Some in the MLWGS community
believe that public outcry and frustration
over budget cuts to gifted education and
Virginia’s Governors Schools would far
outweigh savings to the Commonwealth.

Others, such as MLWGS parent,
math teacher, and Faculty Representative
to the Regional Board, Ms. Lynn
Reed wondered why recent spending has
occurred in advance of possible cuts.

“Certainly I’m concerned about the
big picture, but we also need to remember
that we are paying for things such as
the diversity consultant,” said Ms. Reed.

One positive sign is that regardless
of the funding situation, some MLWGS
feeder districts have expressed interest in
increasing their number of student slots
for next year.

“There are hard times out now,” said
Mr. Hunt. “We want to make sure that
we continue to have the student enrollment
that we currently have. But we
may even have a growth year ahead.”

Jabberwock News Editor Charles
Condro contributed to this report.

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