Each year, about 160,000 people, many of them schoolchildren, learn about frogs, snakes, bugs and other animals and plants during visits to Fernbank Science Center.
The decades-old institution, owned and operated by the DeKalb County public school district, has offered a hands-on education to students and other visitors from across metro Atlanta and elsewhere. However, it might close, under a recommendation Thursday by the school board’s budget committee. Fernbank Science Center, which includes a planetarium, is near the Fernbank Museum of Natural History, which is operated by a separate nonprofit.
At an annual cost of $4.7 million, the building and its 56 full-time employees now are looking like a luxury to school officials. They are struggling with a $73 million deficit, and may have to cut teachers and school days to balance the budget.
School board Chairman Eugene Walker, who opposes closing the science center, said students go there to work on projects and learn about nature. “It’s a great educational opportunity for students that are interested in science,” he said.
This week, the school board adopted a tentative $759.7 million budget that closed the gap, but only with an unlikely $30 million tax increase. Several who backed the spending plan — a formality mandated by the state so the public would have something to comment on — said they had no desire to actually raise taxes. They’ll have to vote on a final budget before fiscal 2013 starts on July 1.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution polled eight of the nine board members (only Sarah Copelin-Wood could not be reached), and five said, to varying degrees, they opposed a tax increase.
“I will only consider a tax increase after we have made all the reductions we can,” said Tom Bowen, the board vice chairman. “Using reserves last year allowed us to escape some hard decisions.”
Bowen was referring to DeKalb’s savings account. Money piled up in flush times, but there are no reserves now. Indeed, this year, DeKalb may wind up $6 million in debt. If that happens, officials say they will hold off on paying bills until July or after, meaning the deficit actually could be closer to $79 million.
No other major metro Atlanta school system is in the same dire financial straits. Last year, the most recent for which figures are available, only a half-dozen public school systems in Georgia ended the year owing money.
The causes, though, are not unique: rising costs for items such as health insurance, and plummeting tax receipts. Property values, the foundation of the DeKalb tax base, will have seen a 25 percent decline from fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2013, according to school system financial officials.
Proponents of a tax increase, including Walker, note that DeKalb hasn’t raised its tax rate in nearly a decade.
“The idea of just cutting to solve this problem is irresponsible,” he said.
The school system’s tax rate is 22.98 mills. The 2-mill increase would bring it within a hair of the 25-mill cap set by voters. With no reserves, that would mean more cuts next year if property values continue to fall and costs continue to rise.
The tentative budget adopted Tuesday included $44.5 million in cuts. It called for laying off 70 central office staffers for a savings of $5 million. It also cut $8 million from transportation, eliminating 188 bus monitors, 60 drivers on routes to special schools (such as magnet schools and theme schools) and $1.6 million for field trips.
Teachers and their assistants weren’t spared. Twenty-five media specialists in libraries were targeted, as were 52 magnet school teachers and 28 Montessori program teachers. (Though documents indicated those programs were being eliminated, the cuts actually would reduce their student-teacher ratios to that of standard schools.)
The biggest — and most controversial — hit for teachers: saving $14 million by cutting about 200 positions, thereby increasing the ratio of students to teachers by two. The four board members who sit on the board’s budget committee couldn’t agree on that one when they hashed out their differences Thursday. They also disagreed about eliminating the bus trips to magnet schools, contending on one hand that it was a luxury and on the other that poor kids in families without cars would be most hurt.
The committee added $17.5 million in cuts, including the Fernbank Science Center funding, $6 million for two more teacher furlough days (atop the two school days stripped from the school calendar a couple of years ago) and elimination of the school system’s $2.7 million in costs for pre-kindergarten.
If they can’t agree on the magnet school busing and teacher cuts, though, they’ll be back where they started, needing nearly $30 million in other cuts to avoid a tax increase.
A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for 6 p.m. Wednesday at school system headquarters, 1701 Mountain Industrial Blvd., Stone Mountain.
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What DeKalb County school board members said about a tax increase
In support
Eugene Walker, board chairman: “The idea of just cutting to solve this problem is irresponsible.”
Jesse “Jay” Cunningham: “If it’s not 2 mills, it has to be something because we cannot continue to put it on the backs of our employees.”
Donna Edler: “It’s not like we’re talking about a tax increase for, I don’t know, a movie theater. We’re talking about a tax increase for schools.”
In opposition
Tom Bowen, vice chairman: “I will only consider a tax increase after we have made all the reductions we can.”
Nancy Jester: “I don’t support a tax increase. ... We did nothing to plan for a rainy day.”
Don McChesney: “If we raise it this year, next year we won’t have anywhere to go.”
Pam Speaks: “I don’t want to see the millage rate increase because if it were to be increased, we would be up to our limit and we would have absolutely no wiggle room.”
Paul Womack: “I can’t support a 2-mill increase. ... We need to look internally to cut a lot.”
Could not be reached
Sarah Copelin-Wood
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