Fayette County teachers Sean Bennett and Gwin Jordan figure they’ve taught more than 4,000 kids combined in their 25 years in the southside school district. Over the years, they’ve weathered pay cuts and other hits to their wallets without much complaint. But now the married couple, with five children of their own, is looking at what they say will be a possible 11.2-percent pay cut in their annual combined salary of about $95,000. That’s about $900 a month less for the family who lives in Clayton County because they can’t afford to live in Fayette.
How to lessen the pain of declining revenue is at the core of this year’s budget battle for many school districts such as Fayette County, which has lost about $25 million in state and local revenues since 2010. Enrollment has fallen and the county’s property tax digest is projected by down by 10 percent. In DeKalb, the school board voted to cut 133 education job. Cobb has tentatively approved a budget to cut 400 jobs and shorten its school calendar.
“It’s very tough,” Fayette schools comptroller Laura Brock said.
So tough, in fact, that Fayette school officials are considering cutting salaries for the second time in three years. In addition, the district is looking at school closures, five fewer paid days for employees and possibly ending some health care benefit supplements to offset the multimillion dollar deficit. While savings from any school closings won’t be realized until the 2013-14 school year, the pay and benefit cuts could amount, on average, to 2.6 percent for teachers.
The cuts could prove difficult for some of the district’s 2,600 workers who’ve endured a roller-coaster ride financially in the last few years when the district cut their pay in 2009 but then restored it in increments last year. This latest round of cuts has forced some teachers to consider leaving the district for better-paying jobs elsewhere. Teachers, bus drivers, nurses, custodians, cafeteria and front office workers are weighing their own tough choices:
“The truth is, we can’t afford to work for you anymore,” Bennett told school board members recently. “Hardworking families can’t afford to work for you.”
It’s a bit of an irony for a school district whose ACT and SAT test scores have repeatedly outpaced the state and nation and drawn teachers to the district because of its high performance standards. Last year, Fayette’s ACT composite score was 23, up from 22.6 the previous year. By comparison, state schools scored 20.6 and nationally schools scored 21.1.
But McIntosh High School social studies teacher Joseph Jarrell fears the roller-coaster ride of paycuts during the past few year coupled with the current proposed cuts will not only drive away good teachers but prevent the district from being able to recruit teachers and staff to the area. Now instead of being able to draw people to the area on the legacy of the high-performing school district, people will be lured to places such as Cherokee, Forsyth and North Fulton, equally good school systems that pay much better.
“We’re going to lose people who may normally apply,” said Jarrell, president of Fayette Professional Association of Georgia Educators. He projects he’ll lose about $3,000 a year in his pay if the proposed cuts are approved.
But one parent doesn’t feel the district’s cost-cutting will affect the quality of education nor will it lead to an exodus of teachers.
“The fact is elsewhere everybody else is facing the same problem,” said Pat Hinchey, a financial planner with two children in Fayette schools. “So people aren’t going to be flocking anywhere.”
Hinchey took his kids out of Woodward Academy and moved his family from Henry County to Fayette in 2005 for the education after learning Woodward and Fayette schools had similar test scores, graduation rates and kids going to college. Hinchey’s two kids are now in high school, and he feels the district still provides the same quality of education that drew him to the county.
But Hinchey cautioned whatever cuts Fayette school officials make, “it should be done with thought and analysis.”
“There is less dollars today than there were projected to be even four years ago,” Hinchey said. “So there’s going to be cuts and everybody shares in those cuts.”
Similarly, other school districts have had to make tough calls. Facing a projected $89 million budget shortfall, the state’s largest school district, Gwinnett County Public Schools, will increase class sizes and not fill nearly 600 positions next year. Most of the jobs are in the classroom. That plan is slated to be approved in May. Likewise, Cobb was scheduled to vote Thursday night on its budget-balancing plan that includes five furlough days and the elimination of 350 teaching positions, which would increase class size by two students on average in all grades.
In Clayton, middle school sports is on the chopping block if a deal between the school district and the county’s parks and recreation system doesn’t work out. Under the deal, parks and recreation would take over running the athletics programs.
Staff writers Nancy Badertscher and Ty Tagami contributed to this article.
WHAT TEACHERS ARE PAID
Beginning salaries in metro Atlanta
Clayton: $39,555
Cobb: $38,958
Fayette: $36,735*
Fulton: $39,132
Gwinnett: $38,010
With bachelor degree and 30 years experience:
Clayton: $60,035
Cobb: $58,457
Fayette: $56,076
Fulton: $62,592
Gwinnett: $60,825
* before the proposed cuts next year
PROPOSED CUTS
• Ending the school district’s health and dental care supplement for school employees.
Potential savings: almost $2.5 million a year
• Closing three schools: Fayetteville Intermediate, Hood Avenue Primary and Fayette Middle and then moving kids from those schools to Rivers Elementary (Tabled).
Potential Savings: $1.5 million -$1.7 million a year.*
• Reducing staffing through attrition.
Potential savings: $4 million a year
*Beginning in the 2013-14 school year.
Sources: Metro RESA Salary Study for fiscal year 2012; Fayette school district
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