2-day furloughs ordered for school employees

All Fayette County school custodians, secretaries and office staff will have to take two unpaid days off before June 30 to offset a projected deficit.

The Fayette County school board on Tuesday unanimously approved the two-day mandatory furloughs, including a request for administrators to take voluntary furloughs.

Superintendents, principals and directors are asked to take five days. Assistant principals are asked to take four days. No teachers are affected.

The furloughs are necessary to meet a $240,300 projected deficit for this school year, Comptroller Laura Brock said. The administrative staff is under contract and cannot be ordered to take furloughs, but many have already agreed to the loss in workdays, Brock said.

“As leaders of the organization, we know how important it is,” said Brock, who has a five-day furlough.

If all employees take the furloughs, the district will save $303,000.

In addition to the furloughs, the board is also counting on $3.5 million of tax revenue to come in by June 30, Brock said.

This is just the beginning of Fayette’s budget woes because of decreased state aid and loss of revenue from foreclosures and decreased home values, Superintendent John DeCotis said. Next year will be worse.

At least 100 Fayette County school employees could lose their jobs and the remaining staff will see a 2 percent pay cut to help fund a $14.5 million projected deficit for the 2010 fiscal year.

“It’s almost overwhelming to look at what has to be done,” board member Bob Todd said. “Whatever we end up doing affects above all the classroom and the kids.”

No final decisions were made on the layoffs Tuesday. The board will vote Feb. 9.

The cuts must be made by March when teacher contracts go out for next year, DeCotis said.

The board said it hopes it can cut positions through attrition, but anticipates some people will be laid off.

As of Tuesday, 53 employees had announced they were retiring or resigning at the end of the school year, Comptroller Laura Brock said.

The board is considering cutting 81 to 129 positions from the elementary schools, 35 from the middle schools and 20 from the high schools. The cuts at the elementary school level depend if the board decides to delay opening Rivers Elementary School, a new school scheduled to open in August, Human Resources Director Reanee Ellis said.

Another 15 administrative positions would be trimmed.

“Obviously the state has dealt us a hand we didn’t expect,” Ellis said as school staff groaned behind her.

Fayette’s 24,000 students will also likely have larger class sizes and employees will lose some benefits, including life insurance and long-term disability, Brock said. More than 100 people — mostly school staff — listened to the possible cuts Tuesday night. Teachers, librarians, guidance counselors and paraprofessionals huddled on the floor and leaned against the wall.

Cutting any of the district’s 38 media specialists would hurt students’ education, media specialist Diana Evans told the board.

“The library media specialist is a teacher, an instructional partner, an information and technology specialist, as well as a program administrator,” Evans said as about 30 other media specialists stood behind her.

Peachtree City mother Rachel Smith said she fears the board’s proposal to cut school nurses could hurt her two children. Both have asthma and one has life-threatening food allergies, she said.

“There is absolutely no one in the public school who can handle medical emergencies other than the school nurse,” Smith told the board. “Schools without nurses are putting children in harm’s way.”