DeKalb schools to cut back busing

DeKalb County school board members Monday approved some of the biggest cuts so far by a metro Atlanta system in the wake of a sour economy and state funding cuts.

The measures, including layoffs and cuts in busing, drew criticism from dozens of parents and employees who attended the regularly scheduled meeting at Freedom Middle School in Stone Mountain. But board members forged ahead.

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ELISSA EUBANKS / eeubanks@ajc.com

Fourth-grader Taylor Jackson, 9, makes her plea to the DeKalb County school board at Freedom Middle School in Stone Mountain on Monday.

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Here’s a look at what to expect:

LAYOFFS

DeKalb will lay off 127 employees, effective June 30. It will cut a total of 217 jobs. The difference includes jobs that are vacant or held by employees who last week accepted an early retirement offer. Employees affected by job cuts range from midlevel administrators to service technicians — but not teachers.

FEWER BUSES

Starting Jan. 6, busing will be cut back for students who attend schools outside their neighborhood — about 5,600 of the school district’s 99,600 students, including those in magnet schools, charter schools and academic theme schools or who transferred from lower-performing campuses. DeKalb will create hubs and over the next two months will notify parents where to drop off their children to be picked up by school buses and taken to school. Parents are responsible for picking up the children at the same hubs after school. This is a change from the system’s current policy, which buses many students almost door-to-door.

PAY AND POCKETBOOK

The board voted to erase pay raises already approved for this school year. The raises, to have gone into effect in January, are called “step increases” — salary supplements based on an employee’s years of experience. Central office administrators face 2 percent pay cuts as of Dec. 31.

WHY IT’S NEEDED

The district will lose at least $10.5 million in a midyear state budget cut. There are expectations that, given the economy, the state will cut at least another 1 percent of DeKalb’s school funding for the next school year. This does not include any downturn in local tax collections. School board members told Superintendent Crawford Lewis to reduce staff during budget talks this spring. Salaries and benefits make up 91 percent of the system’s $894.1 million general operations budget. Lewis’ goal is to reduce that to 87 percent.

SAVINGS

More than $20 million. The step increase alone is worth about $7.5 million.

REACTION

Board members got an earful Monday from parents and teachers about the busing cuts and the step increases. Parents predicted chaos in January because of the midyear change. The Organization of DeKalb Educators, which represents more than half of DeKalb’s 7,500 teachers, lobbied hard for the step increases and Monday threatened legal action because the system hasn’t held hearings on the matter.

WHAT’S NEXT

Expected next year: Once-a-month employee furloughs and four-day workweeks in summer.