The DeKalb County school board tabled action Monday night on a revision of the policy governing its travel budget.
Currently, the school district's chief financial officer presents financial statements each month on the amount of taxpayer money reimbursed to board members for their travel. That language would be stricken under a proposal by Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson.
Atkinson said goals of the proposal included scrapping the CFO reference so other staffers could prepare the monthly financial statement. She also wanted to change language about shifting unused travel funds into the next year budget so it could be recovered in the current fiscal year.
"Right now, if there are dollars available, it goes into the next year's expenses," Atkinson said, "but we may need it in the current year."
Board member Paul Womack motioned to table the item and got four other board members to agree. He was concerned about removing a provision that divided the $36,000 travel budget equally among the nine board members.
"I don't think you should have the ability to take my travel expense that I elect not to use and put it in somebody else's travel account," he said.
Policy Committee Chairman Don McChesney said most board members don't travel anyway.
So far this year, only three board members had dipped into their $4,000 reimbursement funds, spending a total of about $3,900.
The Policy Committee and the school district's lawyers have already approved the proposal.
But money is a touchy subject in DeKalb, where officials are talking about both a tax increase and deep cuts to balance a projected deficit next year of $73 million.
About the Author
