The DeKalb County School District has a tentative 2013 budget with $44.5 million in cuts and nearly $30 million in new taxes.
DeKalb officials are wrestling with their most challenging budget in years. Unlike most school systems in Georgia, DeKalb has no money in the bank and is on a trajectory to finish the fiscal year in debt.
The board took a step Tuesday toward closing what is potentially a more than $70 million deficit by ordering spending cuts and reluctantly setting the table for more taxpayer support.
"I cannot support a two mill increase," said Paul Womack, who nonetheless voted with the majority in the 5-2 decision Tuesday afternoon. He wasn't alone. The board had to adopt something prior to a public hearing Tuesday evening to comply with Georgia Department of Education rules. A final budget typically must be in place before the fiscal year starts July 1, and changes are likely.
Nancy Jester wouldn't vote even for this early draft of the budget because of the tax increase. She said she wants to cut "everything, and more."
Without that $30 million, the board will have to look far beyond a list of 15 reductions recommended by Superintendent Cheryl Atkinson.
The biggest, a two-student increase in the average classroom size that would save $14 million, may also be the most controversial. Layoffs of about 70 central office employees would reduce spending by $5 million and a pullback in overtime pay would save another $5 million. Assorted other cuts, including the elimination of the Montessori program, transportation to magnet schools and elimination of 25 librarians, would make up the rest.
Atkinson withdrew other options, but they're still on the table if the tax rate doesn't rise. Among those options, are eliminating the pre-kindergarten program and outsourcing custodians.
DeKalb increased average class sizes by two students a couple years ago, and teachers say another increase would push them to the breaking point.
Tracey Anderson, an English teacher at Lakeside High, said her student roster would rise from around 150 to about 190, "which is beyond impossible -- it's absurd. ... I don't even know how one would report the grades."
Rather than increase class sizes, parent Molly Bardsley said officials should cut athletics. "There's no point in training student athletes when they can't read or write or get a job," said Bardsley, whose children attend Kittredege Elementary and the DeKalb School of the Arts, both magnet schools.
The kind of desperation DeKalb finds itself in is rare. Last year, only a half dozen of Georgia's more than 180 school systems ended the year owing money, according to the most recent figures available from the Georgia Department of Education. They were all smaller counties, outside metro Atlanta.
With the economy so bad, observers expected more systems with negative numbers this year, "but so far, there hasn't been a huge number of them," said Angela Palm, policy director with the Georgia School Boards Association.
Herb Garrett, a former superintendent who heads the Georgia School Superintendents Association, said school districts typically keep an amount of money in the bank equal to a twelfth of the operating budget. There are times of the year when the flow of revenue from the state or local tax authorities slows, and school districts rely on their reserves. "You need to have money to fall back on to make payroll," Garrett said.
Given DeKalb's tentative budget of $759.7 million, the district should have more than $63 million in reserves.
The tentative budget is designed to pay any unpaid bills that roll over from this year. It would end the next fiscal year with nothing in reserves.
The next public hearing is 6 p.m. May 30, at school district headquarters.
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