DeKalb schools consider job cuts

More than 200 DeKalb County employees learned Friday they may lose their jobs so that the budget-strapped school system can save money.

The proposal by Superintendent Crawford Lewis includes three different options on how to shed those jobs, which range from midlevel administrators to groundskeepers to drivers’ education instructors. The job cuts could come as soon as December, although it seems more likely to be June.

The proposal is one of several budget-slashing measures DeKalb schools face this year in the wake of a sour economy and state funding cuts.

Other metro Atlanta school systems face the same conditions —- Fulton has instituted a hiring freeze for non-instructional jobs —- but so far no other system plans the kind of cuts DeKalb envisions.

DeKalb has been especially hard hit as it weathers a dip in enrollment. Georgia pays for public schools by attaching dollars to individual students.

DeKalb’s job cuts deliberately avoid elimination of teachers as well as other schoolhouse employees such as janitors and media specialists. It includes salary cuts for central office employees making more than $100,000. It saves the system at least $10.5 million, Lewis said.

“This is the most difficult assignment I have ever been given,” he said. “I have mixed emotions about it. I wish there was a way around it. But there’s not.”

School board members told Lewis to reduce staff during budget talks this spring, as the board and Lewis grappled with growing costs and fewer dollars. 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.

Presented with the plan Friday, board members reacted favorably. They also acknowledged the hard part comes over the next several weeks as they commit to action. “Every person at this table is going to have a different program or different group” they want to save, member Tom Bowen said. He cautioned the board that, “We can’t go down the road picking and choosing.”

Other local systems have not headed down that road —- yet.

Atlanta city officials acknowledged economic “uncertainty… [but] we still anticipate that the district will not need to cut programs during this year,” said Chuck Burbridge, the system’s chief financial officer.

In Cobb County, Superintendent Fred Sanderson this week said he expects the state to cut more than $8.5 million from county schools this year alone. However, deep staffing cuts so far are not among the proposed cost-saving measures.

In DeKalb, Marcus Turk, the DeKalb schools’ chief financial officer, expects the district to lose another $10.5 million in state funds this school year. If that happens, cuts in state education funding by May will have cost DeKalb more than $100 million since 2002.

Turk said he also expects the state, given the economy, to cut at least another 1 percent of DeKalb’s school funding for the next school year.

This week, board members approved an early retirement proposal for 142 central office employees that could save as much as $3.2 million a year —- savings in addition to those in Friday’s proposal. System officials last month also proposed student busing cuts designed to save about $4 million annually.

Lewis has the system under a hiring freeze for jobs other than in the classroom. Positions empty because of retirement or attrition are being cut from the rolls.

David Schutten, president of the independent advocacy group Organization of DeKalb Educators, said employees are jittery because they know “it’s not DeKalb alone. It’s happening all over the country. Everybody’s on edge right now because of this.”

The board is expected to set a meeting in the next week or two to continue talking about the proposal. It’s not clear how quickly the board wants to act.

THREE OPTIONS

DeKalb schools Superintendent Crawford Lewis suggests three options to cut jobs and save the system at least $10.5 million. Although as many as 267 jobs may be eliminated, not that many employees face the ax because more than 45 of those jobs are already vacant.

PLAN A:

> Cut 267 jobs by Dec. 31.

> Cut equipment and travel budgets.

> Cut administrative salaries over $100,000 by 2 percent.

PLAN B (preferred by Lewis):

> Cut 163 jobs by June 30.

> Cut administrative salaries over $100,000 by 2 percent.

> Borrow $3.6 million in a tax anticipation note —- a short-term loan.

PLAN C:

> Borrow $10.5 million in a tax anticipation note —- a short-term loan.

> Cut administrative salaries over $100,000 by 2 percent.

> Eliminate up to 267 jobs by end of next year for additional savings.