At least 107 school jobs in Cherokee to be cut, 191 more on block

By Christopher Quinn

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Cherokee County schools will cut at least 41 teacher and 76 support positions next year because of the budget crisis.

Those are starting estimates and are optimistic, Superintendent Frank Petruzielo said.

"I think we will have to eliminate more than that," he said after a Thursday night school board meeting where he delivered the bad news.

Also, the system is paying 191 teachers and staff with federal stimulus funds that will disappear after the 2010-11 school year, Petruzielo said.

The reductions are the latest for the county. The state made austerity cuts of nearly $44 million to Cherokee schools between 2004 and 2008, say documents he handed to board members. State and local governments share education costs. Cherokee cut 304 part-time and paraprofessional teachers after last school year and currently employs 2,866 teachers.

Petruzielo predicted cuts in arts and music, bus routes, athletic programs and summer school, as well as school nurses and other support staff, such as secretaries. And there will be larger class sizes.

"Unless something tantamount to a miracle occurs, at least all this is going to happen," he said.

A deflated school board listened as Petruzielo predicted a minimum reduction in funding next year of $25 million to $30 million. The budget this year for school operations, not including construction and debt service, is about $334 million.

School Board Chairwoman Debi Radcliff called the news "devastating."

"We have gone beyond being able to say we will make a few cuts here and there. Now we are in survival mode," she said. "We definitely have crossed the line to the classroom now, the one place we didn't want to go."

Parent DonnaMarie Alcott said, "It's grim for us."

The system studied but decided against going to a four-day school week. That prospect posed a big impact on education with few cost savings.

Alcott works for an international information technology firm and said she is familiar with global competition. She said she is worried that Georgia schools are discussing plans to cut back on the mandatory 180-day school calendar to save money. In Japan, for example, students attend school more than 200 days a year.

Alcott is starting a countywide protest, calling on parents to send the county's state legislators erasers with the message "Don't erase the future of education."

Board member Mike Chapman said the board attended a community meeting with Cherokee legislators more than a week ago to talk about the budget crisis.

"Our legislative delegation, when we talked to them about options and ideas, they immediately said, "Well, Mike can vote to raise taxes,' " he said.

School boards set millage rates on property taxes, which brought in about 60 percent of this year's budget.

"I realize school boards are considered the bottom of the food chain in the political world, but they are pushing responsibility downhill," he said.

Chapman said he would look under every rock before approving a property tax increase.

"But even if we raised it to the maximum it doesn't even come close to covering the deficit," he said. "It is almost a moot point."