Merle Monahan/Contributing Writer/merlemonah@aol.com

ISLE OF WIGHT—The Isle of Wight County School Board on Thursday adopted a $61,324,587 budget for fiscal 2008 — nearly $500,000 less than what the board had originally planned.

The reductions, necessary to agree with appropriations made by the county Board of Supervisors, will impact the operating budget only slightly, however, as most of the cuts were in capital improvements.

The original budget proposal of $61,817,087 called for funding for eight new school buses and two covered walkways.

A memo from School Superintendent Dr. Michael McPherson to the board noted that in order to balance with the Board of Supervisors, school bus purchases had been reduced to four, while the walkways had been eliminated until other funds became available.

Other revisions included a reduction of $68,000 in the Virginia Retirement System and a reduction in the technology equipment refreshment/replacement allocation of $197,473.