Cobb schools proposing balanced budget calling for employee raises, end to furlough days, reducing class sizes

• Hiring up to 200 teachers.

• Using $15 million from schools’ $75 million reserve fund

• $35 million more in state funding

• $20 million extra in local property tax revenues

Cobb school officials aim to decrease classroom sizes, increase employee pay and end furlough days as part of the district’s nearly $890 million proposed budget for the next school year.

Superintendent Michael Hinojosa’s recommended budget represents a complete turnaround for Georgia’s second-largest school system, which had previously faced a nearly $79 million budget deficit.

Now school district leaders are presenting a balanced budget, which proposes up to a 1 percent pay raise for school district employees. It also recommends hiring up to 200 teachers to reduce class sizes as well as an end to furlough days. Students would be back to a full-time, 180-day calendar under the proposed budget.

“This is good news,” said longtime school board member David Banks during a school board meeting Monday morning, where the budget was presented. “It’s amazing what can change … I think the community will be very pleased with what we’ve done.”

Several factors helped eliminate the deficit:

• The school system is getting about $35 million more in state funding from the governor’s budget, in addition to about $20 million extra in local property tax revenues.

• The district is also spending about $20 million less this year, largely because of a hiring freeze.

• Cobb is also proposing to dip into its rainy day reserve fund nearly $15 million as part of the budget.

School board leaders are expected to formally vote on the proposed budget later this month.

If it is approved, it would be the first time since 2009 employees would see a pay raise, Banks said. In 2010, employees took a 2 percent pay cut to make up for a decline in state and local tax revenue, he added.

The district’s nearly 14,000 employees would get raises. In addition, the experience-based pay increase, or “step” for those eligible, would not be delayed, as it had been in previous years.

Cobb – like a number of school districts across Georgia in recent years — has had to use furlough days to make up for lost revenue amid the recession. Cobb is currently operating on a 175-day school calendar; the proposed budget, however, is taking away those furlough days and putting students back on a full 180-day school calendar.

Over the past five or so years, Cobb has also had to cut nearly 1,400 teaching positions during rough economic times, with classroom sizes inching up as a result.

With the proposed budget, school officials believe teachers, parents and students will welcome the changes.

“This is a dramatic turnaround from where we’ve been the last few years,” said Cobb’s chief financial officer, Brad Johnson.

Johnson said it’s not ideal for the district to be dipping into its reserve funds, but system leaders are proposing doing that to give raises and hire more teachers. The system currently has close to $75 million in reserve funds, Johnson said.

School districts across Georgia are seeing a nearly $300 million bump in funding from the state, though school officials say it’s still not likely enough to get districts back to where they were financially before the recession hit.

At Monday’s meeting, Cobb board members credited the increase in state funds as well as better than expected local tax revenues with helping to diminish the deficit. They said parent groups like FACE it Cobb played a significant role in getting the Legislature to give schools more money this year.

Kristy Flowers, FACE it Cobb director, said she’s encouraged by the budget and appreciates the increase in revenue from the state. She notes, however, that it’s an election year and hopes the governor and legislature continue to beef up education funding in the future.

“The problem is, it’s a one-time fix,” Flowers said. “Unfortunately, we’re going to be in the same boat we’re in now next year. We have no guarantee the governor and the Legislature next year will put money in the budget. We hope they will.”