MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Janet Longerbeam, band director at Pulaski Middle School, teaches music to her brass band students during a music class. Because of deep state budget cuts expected to hurt schools, Longerbeam says she is concerned about her future at the school.

| Anna L. Mallory

anna.mallory@roanoke.com, 381-8627

PULASKI -- After four years as band director at Pulaski Middle School, 27-year-old Janet Longerbeam decided the time had come to put down real roots in the community.

She bought a house in January and made her first mortgage payment this month.

But because of deep state budget cuts expected to hurt schools here, her plans and her hopes may be dashed.

Longerbeam said she's revising her resume.

"It's kind of rough because they don't know what's going on," Longerbeam said. "You don't want to get attached to the house."

Like all school divisions in the New River Valley and most in the state, Pulaski County officials have few good budget options.

County officials are looking for ways to make up an expected $3.9 million shortfall over the next fiscal year based on the version of the state budget approved by the House of Delegates. The House and Senate each passed a different budget bill Feb. 21.

The House bill hits Pulaski harder than the Senate version. Both the House and the Senate are working on reconciling their spending plans before a deadline set for midnight tonight.

While officials in all local school districts expect to lose employees next year, Pulaski County is the only New River Valley district considering consolidation, an option often unpopular with teachers and parents.

Merging the county's Pulaski and Dublin middle schools, which have combined enrollments of about 1,000, is just one proposal to fix what interim Superintendent Thomas Brewster calls devastating cuts.

On Monday, Brewster will present four budget options to the county's five-member school board. Two of those include consolidation, but two do not.

Brewster declined to provide details of those options, saying the school board had yet to see the proposals.

Brewster said he and other school officials would continue working through Monday morning hoping to "catch a few breaks" from the General Assembly.

State lawmakers are meeting in their final budget session today but are not expected to pass a budget on time.

"There's a lot of things still happening in Richmond that could control our fates," Brewster said.

Meanwhile, tense teachers are bracing for possible layoffs. The town and county already have suffered a series of company closings and increasing unemployment.

Some teachers said they think school consolidation and related layoffs seem imminent.

"We do recognize that one of our buildings is going to close," Pulaski Middle School social studies teacher Bill Atwood said.

The 20-year teaching veteran said the saddest part of the proposal is the long-term effects of losing a school building on the community and its children.

"This school is a symbol of Pulaski," he said.

There's no word yet on which school would be closed under either consolidation proposal. But some argue any consolidation plan would strip away an important sense of identity from students and the wider community.

Atwood's school, which has 60 percent of its population on free or reduced lunch prices, is a safe-haven for children, he said.

But Brewster stressed that any consolidation plan would focus more on reconfiguring grade levels than combining all middle school students and could save up to $1.2 million, he said.

The school board must adopt a budget plan by April 8.

Part of the plan includes putting sixth-graders back into elementary schools and having middle school enroll seventh and eighth grades only. Up to 105 jobs could be cut under the plan.

Brewster said he and his staff have worked on several scenarios but that he doesn't want to let staff, or a school, go.

Teachers said they weren't notified that officials were considering consolidation until early February. Administrators then mentioned the idea at the Feb. 24 school board meeting.

While no one would favor consolidating, officials say they may be left with little choice.

The budget cuts are "putting us in a position where we can't succeed," said Pulaski Middle Principal Michael Perry. "We need to be a full-service school. If we don't consolidate, we're not going to be a full-service school."

Keeping all schools open could mean cutting electives and teaching only core subjects such as English, math and history, he said.

"All of this has happened just so sudden," Longerbeam said, shedding tears. "I don't want to leave here because I love it and the students."