A $1.1 billion DeKalb County schools budget presented Wednesday evening to staff and the public has teachers crying foul because it does not include customary pay increases for years of experience.

More than 100 educators and support staff at the presentation hurled catcalls at county officials for underfunding them even though the proposed budget includes a 2.5 percent salary increase for all employees.

The proposal, which would go into effect July 1, also does not increase the millage rate for property taxes.

At issue are so-called "step" increases, which can be an integral part of pay for public school teachers in metro Atlanta. Systems recruit and retain good teachers by paying them above and beyond the state salary schedule; step increases are a kind of salary supplement for teachers based on years of experience.

DeKalb schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis said the county next school year could not afford the step increases, especially as the state continues to pay less than the law requires.

These austerity cuts in state education funding have cost DeKalb $93.6 million since 2002, school officials said. Even for next year, Lewis is making cuts to balance the budget without a tax hike.

No one is being laid off, and Lewis said he thought it was fair to give everyone a 2.5 percent raise but not to take it further.

Marcus Turk, the school system's chief financial officer, said, "A salary plus a raise is better than no salary at all."

Teachers and staff at the presentation did not want to hear it.

The conditions didn't help: The presentation was held in a small — and soon overflowing — lecture hall on Georgia Perimeter College's Clarkston campus, and those outside the hall could not hear the remarks. The microphones also kept cutting on and off, which a technician said was caused by a power surge.

"Teachers do not enter the profession to strike it rich," said Leonard Williams, a DeKalb resident and staff attorney with state advocacy group the Professional Association of Georgia Educators.

Pay raises alone "have not kept up with inflation," Williams said, adding that rising insurance premiums are also cutting into what people bring home.

Lisa Morgan, a DeKalb kindergarten teacher and representative of the local Organization of DeKalb Educators, said the county was jeopardizing its competitiveness.

Morgan said that a salary study by the group, which counts among its members 4,700 of the system's more than 6,000 teachers, showed DeKalb in the lower half of the seven core, metro Atlanta systems it reviewed.