Metro schools to slash again

By Gracie Bonds Staples and Patrick Fox
pfox@ajc.com

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The state has cut $1 billion from education in just 19 months, inexorably turning the screws on local schools. Turns out that was just practice.

Fiscal 2011, which starts July 1, is already a rotten apple on the teacher’s desk.

The avalanche began when DeKalb County school officials said last month that the system would be short $88 million in its 2011 budget. Since then, so many other shoes have dropped, it’s starting to look like a Rack Room out there.

On Thursday, Cobb County schools said their shortfall would approach $100 million. On Friday, Gwinnett County schools gave the same report: $100 million short. Clayton County said it will be nearly $63 million in the hole; and Atlanta, $47 million. Fulton County has said its shortfall could reach $120 million.

DeKalb now says its gap could hit $115 million. Those systems alone are facing total cuts of more than a half-billion dollars.

Those numbers add up to unprecedented badness. The state’s largest and wealthiest school districts won’t just be chipping at the margins of their budgets this spring but will sometimes be hacking at sinew and bone. Fulton, for example, plans to ax 1,000 jobs by next fall, including those of nearly 500 teachers. DeKalb will be closing schools, perhaps as many as 12.

Parents are understandably concerned, if not outright worried.

Fulton’s proposal to cut 26 social workers, 37 school counselors, 28 school psychologists and several school police officers concerns parent Bruce Moody.

“[They] are really the backbone of our schools. When you add teachers to that, who will these children go to for help?” said Moody, vice president of the PTSA at Creekside High School in Fairburn. “It’s like a double-edged sword. I’m really concerned about how our children will fare.”

Each metro school system has a different strain of the same virus, and each will have different ways of treating it.

Some are further along than others in determining — or at least in disclosing — the extent of their financial problems for 2011; all are working on the 2011 budget.

For example, Cherokee County schools haven’t set a budget for 2011, but Superintendent Frank Petruzielo said that elementary school arts, music and physical education programs are in the cross-hairs if cuts become necessary.

“If the choice is between cutting first-grade teachers or reducing the scope of programs in art and music and physical education, I don’t need to tell you which of those is going on the chopping block,” he said.

Budget crisis in education

Here is how the cutbacks are taking shape in metro Atlanta’s largest school districts.

Atlanta

The city system will cut spending by about $47.4 million for the 2011 fiscal year, officials said Friday. The projected budget for 2011 is $588.6 million. In addition to cost-cutting measures, the system plans to pull about $9.5 million from its reserves.

● Total job cuts: Not yet known.

● Furlough days: Two.

● School closing: Turner Middle School, but the closing was already planned because of declining enrollment.

● Other cuts: Freeze on salary steps and cost-of-living increases. Each department budget is to be cut by 10 percent.

● Class sizes: Size of increase not yet specified.

● Next: Community hearings on the budget April 1 at Burgess-Peterson Elementary and April 22 at Young Middle School.

Cherokee County

Forecasts of next year’s budget are fuzzy until legislators finalize a state budget and the county knows how much it will raise from local school taxes, officials said, so there are few details of the county’s plans. The current year budget is $501 million, up from $425 million in 2009.

● Total job cuts: Not yet known

● Potential cuts: Considering cutting some transportation costs and also school nurses not funded by the state. System managers have been asked to prepare percentage scenarios: what could be cut if budgets are reduced by 6 percent, for instance, or 10 percent.

● Next: School Board will meet to discuss budget issues on Thursday. A first vote on the budget is scheduled for June 17, a final vote on July 28.

Clayton County

Superintendent Edmond Heatley in February proposed a 2011 budget with 83 recommendations he said would save the district $85.2 million. But Clayton, with a 2011 budget of $397.4 million, would still finish the fiscal year $62.6 million over budget, he said.

● Total job cuts proposed: 386, including 187 paraprofessionals from kindergarten classes.

● School year: Cut from 180 days to 175

● Furlough days: None

● School closings: None

● Class sizes: Not yet known

● Next: Revised budget recommendations to the board March 22. Completed budget to be submitted April 26.

Cobb County

The district plans to cut jobs and educational programs to address a $100 million deficit. Officials are still working on the 2011 budget and have released few details on their plans so far. The budget declined from $948 million in 2009 to $883 million in 2010; the 2011 total has not been disclosed.

● Total job cuts: Not yet known. Reductions are expected.

● Furlough days: Not yet decided. Same with program cuts and class sizes.

● School closings: None planned.

● Next: Budget public forum March 23 at Campbell High School. Board expected to approve budget June 9.

DeKalb County

The county anticipates a shortfall of between $88 million and $115 million; at first, the system said it would close four schools, but now says the closings may total 12 this year or next. It also has proposed deep cuts among central office staff (154) and in paraprofessionals (261).

● Total job cuts: 415

● Teaching positions cut: none

● Furlough days: 7

● School closings: 4 to 12

● Program cuts: Board members are looking at slashing magnet and theme schools and other programs.

● Class size: Will increase by one to two students per class.

● Next: The DeKalb Citizens Planning Task Force will meet Tuesday and April 13 to discuss school closings. Public hearings will be May 6 and 11, and the School Board will vote on closings May 14.

Fulton County

Superintendent Cindy Loe asked the School Board last week to approve cutting hundreds of positions to offset a $120 million deficit. The system is proposing a 2011 budget that is $137 million less than the 2010 budget — from $857 million to $720 million.

● Total job cuts proposed: 1,000

● Teaching positions cut: Nearly 500

● Program cuts: Would save $4 million by eliminating elementary school band and orchestra, which may become fee-based after-school programs.

● Class size: Would increase to the state maximum, adding one student per class in grades K-8 and two in 9-12.

● School year: Cut from 180 to 177 days

● Next: The board is to vote on Loe’s latest recommendations Thursday. Employees who lose their jobs will be notified no later than April and will remain on the payroll through June 30.

Gwinnett County

The state’s largest district has forecast a shortfall of $100 million. It’s a staggering sum but represents a smaller proportion of Gwinnett’s total budget — $2 billion in 2010 — compared with other districts.

● Total job cuts: Not available

● Teaching position cuts: The district will actually be hiring, since it is opening seven schools next year. No figures are available for 2011, but the district has projected 428 new teaching positions during the next four years.

● Furlough days: Three scheduled for next year. The governor called for schools to take these days during the current semester, but Gwinnett has pushed them into next fall.

● Program cuts: None announced, but the district has said it will revisit funding for school crossing guard and community education programs. It also will require each division to cut 7.5 percent.

● Class size: Will increase by about one student in all grades.

● Next: Public hearings on the budget May 13 and 20. The School Board is expected to approve the budget on May 20.

Staff writers Christopher Quinn, Jeffry Scott, D. Aileen Dodd and Laura Diamond contributed to this article.

How we got the story

With news rolling in almost daily of unprecedented shortfalls in metro Atlanta school budgets for 2011, six AJC reporters set out on Friday to assess the financial damage in seven major county school districts — Fulton, Gwinnett, DeKalb, Cobb, Cherokee, Forsyth and Clayton — and the Atlanta city schools. Superintendents or representatives of those systems had only one kind of news to report — bad — but some were further along than others in determining the extent of their financial hardships for the next school year.