Don't cut my kid's pre-k slot. Don't cut my school bus route. Don't cut my teachers.
And whatever you do, don't raise my taxes.
That's the kind of seemingly irreconcilable advice that parents and taxpayers have been giving the DeKalb school system. Officials there will be grappling at 1 p.m. today with what may be the worst education budget deficit in metro Atlanta.
The school board had been whittling away for weeks at an expected gap between revenues and expenses next year of $73 million. Then, last week, as they prepared to vote on a final budget for the fiscal year that starts July 1, they got a rude shock: They learned that the property values supporting local taxes -- the source of half the system's revenues -- had plunged further yet, widening the budget gap to $85 million.
Board members must seek common ground on the $1.1 billion budget, of which about $760 million is for general operations. To balance it, they'll have to weigh competing interests. They've already angered some groups by informally agreeing to cut funding for pre-kindergarten, Montessori, magnet schools and bus routes to some of those schools. Now, Fernbank Science Center is back on the cut list.
David Dundee, the former head of Fernbank's astronomy program, works miles away now at the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville. He laments the proposed cuts for Fernbank, but sees the difficult position for officials balancing competing needs.
"I'm glad I don't have to be there to make this decision," Dundee said. "You've got people on all sides making recommendations: ‘Don't cut my program.' "
The school system could save $3.2 million at Fernbank, in part by eliminating 16 of the 26 science teachers there. It would be one tiny step in a long slog to balancing the budget, while disappointing legions of supporters such as Doug Danielson, an engineer who said Fernbank helped him discover a love of science. "The earliest, deepest experience I had with science was over at Fernbank," he said.
Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson has recommended more than $40 million in cuts to personnel alone. Among the proposed reductions: $6.8 million in employee health insurance subsidies; 100 teacher positions systemwide, increasing average class sizes by one student while saving $7 million; two furlough days, meaning two fewer school days, for another $6 million; 248 bus monitors and drivers with fewer bus trips for a savings of $8.1 million; and 80 specialty teacher positions at Montessori and magnet schools for another $5 million.
Tyisha Davis said her son and daughter have flourished in Midway Elementary School's Montessori program. Students there learn hands-on, discovering color by making dyes, for example, and evolution by studying butterflies. "My kids thrive in it," Davis said. "I'm afraid of losing it."
The future of the Montessori program will be up to the principals at the three schools where it is offered. The budget would eliminate their allotment of teachers in excess of the standard staffing for traditional classrooms. "They can still run the Montessori program," said school system spokesman Walter Woods. "But they're going to have to do it with their own personnel."
Similar cuts are planned at magnet schools, which would lose their allotment of 52 extra teachers. DeKalb's $2.7 million expenditure on pre-kindergarten is also on the block. The county would still receive $7.9 million from the state for that, but the loss of the local funds would mean 10 fewer days that the program is offered, Woods said. He didn't have details on other possible consequences. DeKalb's pre-k, the largest in the state, serves 2,243 children at nearly 80 schools, and Woods said no child would lose a place -- won in a lottery -- because of the cutbacks.
Parent Courtney Lamb has a son preparing to enter pre-k. Her older son attended two years ago, and she watched him and his classmates learn to read and write while adapting to the structure of a school day. "I think it enables children to get a real foundation before starting school," Lamb said. "I think it would be harmful to do away with that."
Lamb would rather see tax increases than cuts, but school board members already stirred resentment when they indicated support for a 1-mill increase generating $15 million.
The comments at a May public hearing by Vivian Dawson, a media clerk in the Decatur City Schools, illustrate the tough decisions ahead. The Lithonia resident told board members that proposals to cut 54 librarians and media clerks to save $2.6 million "chill me to the soul." Then, she chastised them for raising taxes while so many homes in her neighborhood are in foreclosure.
"Abandoned houses, low values," she said, "and yet you're going to ask us for a millage increase?"
SCHOOL BUDGETS (GENERAL OPERATING FUND)
ATLANTA PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Budget: $574.7 million budget, $37.5 million smaller than current
Jobs: About 375 less, including 150 named in the CRCT cheating investigation
Class size: No increase
Furloughs: 4 days
Adopted: June 4
CLAYTON COUNTY
Proposed budget: $333.5 million, down from $345 million
Jobs: 100 to 170 being eliminated
Class size: Up 3 students
Furloughs: 5 days
Other cuts: Reduce some programs for students
Slated for adoption: Monday
COBB COUNTY
Budget: $841.9 million
Jobs: Not filling 350 jobs that are being vacated due to retirements/attrition
Class size: Up 2 students
Furloughs: 3 days for all employees
Other cuts: Reducing school year from 180 to 177 days, delaying step increases for eligible employees to mid-year
Adopted: May 21
FULTON COUNTY
Budget: $814.1 million
Jobs: No cuts
Class size: Remain the same
Furloughs: No furloughs
Other cuts: The school system is pulling $19 million out of savings to balance the budget. A pay freeze is planned for staff.
Adopted: June 5
GWINNETT COUNTY
Budget: $1.2 billion, down $60.6 million from last year
Jobs: Not filling more than 500 jobs that are being vacated due to retirements/attrition
Class size: Up 2 students
Furloughs 2 days
Other cuts: No longevity salary step increases, eliminating 54 vacant central office jobs
Adopted: May 17
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