With little fanfare, the Gwinnett County Board of Education gave final approval Thursday night to a 2012 budget that calls for two unpaid furlough days for most employees, two extra students per classroom and nearly 600 fewer people on the payroll.
Spending for day-to-day operations of the state's largest school district will be $1.2 billion for the fiscal year that starts July 1, down $60.6 million from this year.
"It's a very tough budget," said Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks. "It's one we have lots of concerns with, but it will allow us to continue to do what we need to do."
The largest share of the savings -- $43 million -- will come from leaving vacant 585 jobs, where employees -- mostly teachers -- have retired, resigned or transferred, and adding an average of two students per classroom.
The system will save another $10 million by furloughing employees for a fourth straight year. The two unpaid furlough days will apply to all employees, with the exception of bus drivers and school nutrition workers.
School districts are winding down work on budgets that call for drastic cuts next year, including the elimination of at least 2,000 jobs in metro Atlanta. For them, a combination of factors is at play: under-funding from the state, falling property taxes and the end of federal stimulus money that had helped bridge the gap.
Gwinnett, in the past, has been able to survive state budget cuts on the strength of its tax digest, school board member Robert McClure said. But that's no longer the case, he said.
School property taxes are forecast to be down $36 million this year because of declining property values, said Rick Cost, the school system's chief financial officer.
The school system is not dipping into savings to fund the budget. Raising property taxes wasn't really an option either. Gwinnett's school tax is 19.25 mills, just below the 20-mill maximum.
The system will maintain its current hiring freeze, though the district will hire about 50 new teachers based on a projected enrollment increase of 692 students, far fewer than the norm for the system of nearly 163,000 students.
School board chairman Louise Radloff has called this "one of the most difficult" years in the nearly four decades she's served on the board.
She and other board members have voiced concern that the continuing cuts to education spending could have a negative effect on student learning.
"We've got to prepare our kids for the next generation," Radloff said recently, "and it's critical that we be able to do so with adequate funding."
For a fourth straight year, the district won't be giving teacher raises based on training and experience, even though Gov. Nathan Deal announced in his State of the State address in January that he was sending local school districts $55.8 million for that purpose.
Gwinnett's share -- $7.8 million -- will instead go to cover other expenses. For next year, the system is facing an $11 million increase in its share of employee health insurance premiums for more than 6,000 classified workers, including bus drivers and clerical workers.
McClure said educators in the school system continue to do incredible work under trying circumstances.
"It's not going without notice," he said.
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