APS faces $10 million in cuts

Faced with a budget gap and rising costs from an ongoing cheating scandal, Superintendent Erroll Davis said Friday that Atlanta Public Schools will start the school year with $10 million in cuts.

The district won’t take in enough money this year to cover what it’s been spending, Davis told school board members. And it will be felt all the way from classrooms to the district’s downtown headquarters.

The cuts come as the district also faces increased costs from an ongoing cheating scandal. Davis said Friday that it will cost APS almost $1 million a month to keep nearly 130 implicated employees home on paid leave while also hiring their replacements. The figure does not include legal expenses for the district, which will soon begin efforts to fire them.

“There's no one big item” the district can trim to finding instant savings, Davis said. Instead, he will present a “range of options” for the school board to consider no later than its regular Sept. 12 meeting. The district over the past two years has already shed almost $80 million from its budget.

To bridge the gap, which Davis uncovered this week in meetings with the district’s financial team, the district will turn to a combination that likely will include increased class sizes, additional employee furlough days and possibly even layoffs -- though it is too early to know what or whom could be cut.

Non-teaching staff will likely feel the brunt, including the district’s central office workforce and the offices of area superintendents. Direct spending on classrooms, including teachers, will be protected most.

"Oh my goodness, it's concerning: $10 million is a lot of money," APS parent Dawn Brockington-Shaw said Friday, hoping Davis would take additional care not to cut supplemental programs like art and gym class. "I'm OK with [administrative cuts]. I always think you can trim the fat first. My biggest concern is I don't think we can sustain cuts directly to the classroom."

Effective immediately, Davis said his personal approval is needed to fill open district jobs, not including 109 educators to whom the district either has already offered a job or expects to over the next several days. The new school year starts Aug. 8.

Davis also has directed staff to renegotiate terms with some vendors and contractors.

"These are necessary interventions to bring [the budget] back to where it needs to be," Davis said. "We are in the midst of a crisis. That is something that should have been made more clear to you. We should have very loudly and very clearly and very pointedly" told the board there was trouble, Davis said.

The gap began to grow last school year, even as the district cut overall spending by $67 million. An involuntary furlough day for all employees, a pay freeze and 10 percent reduction in all departments were felt systemwide. However, in curriculum and instruction -- areas most directly tied to students -- spending increased, not with one big push but in incremental steps using for the most part federal stimulus funds as well as one-time savings from other areas, Davis said.

The books on last school year closed as of June 30, and now, with final accounting expected to wrap up next week, the tally of that spending totals about $20 million.

Davis said he can find revenue to offset about $10 million of that amount. The other $10 million will be found through additional cuts, although not all those dollars are going away. Davis plans to set aside about $4 million in savings from the cuts to use toward costs associated with employees implicated in the scandal.

"It was done as a matter of course instead of making you acutely aware," Davis said of the increased spending, which came under his predecessor. He took pains to blame neither ex-schools chief Beverly Hall nor the board, which he said over the course of last year received documentation of the spending although it might not have been prominently highlighted.

"There's a shared responsibility" for the gap, board Chairwoman Brenda Muhammad acknowledged in a later interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The district's chief financial officer, she said, "did bring it [before the board]. Was it as clear and as transparent as it should have been? I don't know. We feel very confident, under Mr. Davis' leadership, it will be corrected. He is not ducking or dodging it."

The board in May had avoided layoffs and a property tax increase when it approved a $578 million general operating budget for this school year. In doing so, it opted for increased class sizes, a continued employee pay freeze and two days of involuntarily furloughs for employees. The budget was $11 million less than last year's operating budget and went into effect July 1.

New leadership for schools in scandal

A final 28 new or interim principals have been named by Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll Davis to lead schools implicated in the ongoing cheating scandal. Although not publicly announced, they were confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by district officials.

With them, Davis has filled all principal vacancies caused by the scandal in time for classes to start Aug. 8. The principals are:

Barbara Lashely (interim), Bethune Elementary

Tresa Andrews (interim), Connally Elementary

Norlethia High (interim), Deerwood Academy

Mesha Greene (new hire), Fain Elementary

Arica Johnson (interim), Fickett Elementary

Ennis Harvey (interim), Finch Elementary

Jermaine Dawson (new hire), Perkerson Elementary

Marissa Kalu-Thompson (interim), Peyton Forest Elementary

Diamond Jack (new hire), Venetian Hills Elementary

Reginald Lawrence (interim), West Manor Elementary

Robert Williams (interim), Kennedy Middle