The recent end of a grueling budget season for school districts across metro Atlanta will result in a school year with fewer teachers, more crowded classrooms and, some fear, less learning.
Schools have endured year after year of cash crises, and the financial duress has compounded in this year's cutbacks.
"Programs are being cut, class sizes are increasing, teachers are being furloughed and are frustrated," said Calvine Rollins, president of the Georgia Association of Educators, a teachers' advocacy group. "All of these things have a direct impact on student learning, and achievement."
In their budgets for the 2013 fiscal year, which began Sunday, many of the biggest school districts cut their teaching staff, which will drive up the number of students in each classroom. Most also imposed furlough days, meaning teachers will lose time for planning lessons or hold class fewer days.
Among metro Atlanta's biggest school systems, only Fulton County escaped significant cuts. That's because Fulton curbed spending in prior years, shaving about $200 million since 2009.
The rest of metro Atlanta's big school districts — Atlanta and the systems in Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties — slashed around $150 million collectively, cutting at least 2,000 teaching positions.
The loudest uproar was in DeKalb, where about 500 teaching positions and 600 support positions were eliminated as part of $78.6 million in cuts. Class sizes will rise by two students on average. Even with the cuts, the school board raised taxes by one mill, or about 4 percent.
Dori Kleber, a Dunwoody parent, volunteered often at Kingsley Charter Elementary School, where she has two children. The two dozen students in her daughter's kindergarten class had to squeeze tight to fit on a rug they shared for activities like counting in turn by fives. Bathroom breaks for all those kids were a constant distraction for the teacher and the teacher's aide, she said.
Kleber, who graduated from the DeKalb school system, recalls when there were 18 children in a kindergarten classroom. She wonders how big classrooms will be allowed to grow. "It just seems like it's starting to be impossible," she said. "My children have had some excellent teachers, but I see those teachers overstressed, overburdened and overwhelmed."
For Chanda White DeKalb's cuts had an even greater impact. She was a parent coordinator in DeKalb's Office of School Readiness until she lost her job Friday. "I have been anxious," White said. "I've never been unemployed, and I've worked since I was 16."
Cuts needed to be made, though.
Real estate values have been falling. Property taxes are based on those values, so they've been falling, too. Also, the state has imposed year after year of austerity cuts.
Meanwhile, school systems have had to cover rising costs for expenses such as healthcare and fuel. Tax increases are unpopular in a good year, let alone when taxpayers are struggling with job loss or fearing it. Consequently, school boards mostly rejected raising taxes, balancing their budgets instead by drawing down savings and reducing spending.
During the budget deliberations in Cobb County in May, several board members expressed fears about further financial declines next year. That prompted board member Tim Stultz to argue against using cash reserves to pay bills. He argued for deeper cutting. "It's a sad situation, but we have to realize that we just don't have the money," he said at the time.
Since then, he's heard complaints from the community about the class size increases, up by two students in Cobb. He's heard that property values are still dropping though, and that there'll be more tough choices next year. "We've got to get the revenue and expense sides to meet again," he said.
In Gwinnett County, during a recent community meeting, Alvin Wilbanks, the school superintendent, worried aloud about the effect of the compounding cuts.
"We have long ago pruned away the low-hanging fruit," he said. Continuing the metaphor, he said that this past year they needed an extension ladder to balance the budget. For fiscal 2013, he said, "we need a bucket truck."
Atlanta
• Budget: $575 million, $30 million less than the 2011-12 amended $605 million budget.
• Teacher jobs eliminated: About 375, including 150 from the CRCT cheating investigation.
• Teachers laid off: A "reduction in force" is still being implemented.
• Class size: No change.
• Furlough days: 4 days
• Number of school days: 180
• Other cuts: 10 percent cuts to major departments, 7 percent for Curriculum Division.
• Adopted: June 4
Clayton County
• Budget: $336 million*, down $11 million from $347 million
• Teacher jobs eliminated: 385 classroom, art, music and physical education teaching positions.*
• Teachers laid off: Unknown
• Class size: Up 2 students
• Furlough days: 5
• Number of school days: 175
• Other cuts: Drop elective courses with low attendance
• Adopted: June 25
Cobb County
• Budget: $842 million, down $10 million from the $852 million budgeted in 2011-12.
• Teacher jobs eliminated: 350
• Teachers laid off: None
• Class size: Up 2 students
• Furlough days: 3
• Number of school days: 177, with school days lengthened for the equivalent of 180 days instruction.
• Other cuts: Delaying step increases for eligible employees to mid-year.
• Adopted: May 21
DeKalb County
• Budget: $760 million, up from $775 million 2011-12 budget but down from actual expenditures of about $799 million.
• Teacher jobs eliminated: Approximately 500, including special education teachers.
• Teachers laid off: None yet, according to school system spokesman Walter Woods.
• Class size: Up 2 students
• Furlough days: 2
• Number of school days: 180 (furloughs were taken from teacher planning days)
• Other cuts: 200 paraprofessionals, 188 bus monitors, 70 central office employees, 54 media specialists and clerks, 20 interpreters, 18 bus drivers, 10 assistant principals, 10 counselors, 10 school officers and 40 percent of Fernbank Science Center's budget.
Adopted: June 21
Fulton County
• Budget: $814.1 million, up from $811.6 revised 2012 budget
• Teacher jobs eliminated: No cuts
• Teachers laid off: None
• Class size: No change
• Furlough days: None
• Number of school days: 177, same as last year
• 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
• Teaching jobs: Not filling more than 585 jobs, the majority of which were teaching jobs (specifics not immediately available)
• Teacher layoffs: None
• Class size: Up 2 students
• Furlough days: 2
• Other cuts: No longevity salary step increases, eliminating 54 vacant central office jobs
• Adopted: May 17
* Figures from Clayton County approved budget
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