Atlanta schools plan pay and job cuts

Atlanta Public Schools announced Monday that it may cancel planned employee pay bonuses, eliminate some jobs and dip into reserve funds in an effort to balance next year’s budget.

The school system must cut about 8 percent — $45 million — from its $595 million in expenses anticipated for the 2013-2014 school year, according to administrators who suggested reductions to the district’s budget commission.

The proposals would avoid furlough days of school employees next year after four furloughs were originally scheduled in the current school year. Two of those furlough days were later restored for instructional workers through a grant from the General Electric Foundation.

Superintendent Erroll Davis said his goal is to avoid having cuts affect the quality of education children receive.

“We’re dealing with across-the-board reductions. It’s impossible to get through this without making reductions everywhere,” Davis said at the meeting. “We obviously want the least impacted reductions at the schoolhouse, but it may not be possible to escape totally.”

Atlanta schools had intended to give each of its 7,700 employees a one-time 3 percent bonus next school year in an effort to improve morale after five years without any raises. Eliminating the bonus would save about $10 million.

Board member Byron Amos questioned whether educators would prefer to take a hit from losing the bonus or taking furloughs.

“Which would be more appreciated: the one-time bonus or the no furlough days?” Amos asked.

The number of jobs in Atlanta Public Schools may shrink as part of a plan to save $2.1 million. That amount of money would mean the loss of about 26 jobs at an average of $80,000 per job, and Davis said he doesn’t want job losses to target educators.

The largest step to balance the budget would come by tapping the school district’s $69 million general fund balance. The school district’s plan calls for taking $20 million from those reserve funds.

Additional savings would come from selling school system property, managing vacant property and eliminating media paraprofessionals.

Another idea would be to save on bus costs by starting the high school and middle school day 15 minutes later, at 8:30 a.m., instead of buying more buses or hiring more bus drivers. That proposal could save up to $3 million.