Schools pass
$1.1 billion budget
by Andy Phelan
andy@dekalbchamp.com
The DeKalb County School Board passed a $1.1 billion 2008-09 budget at its regular business meeting on May 12.
The budget passed 6-1-1.
The budget does not include property tax increases, but does provide a 2.5 percent across-the-board pay increase and teachers’ step increase.
Superintendent Crawford Lewis’ original budget as proposed to committee members did not include the step increases–incentives the board created to retain quality teachers–so the board’s budget committee sent it back to the administration for revision.
The omission angered teachers and led to push back from the Organization of DeKalb Educators and others.
The step increase, which would cost the system about $9 million in this year’s budget, only goes to qualified teachers who have more than three years with DeKalb.
For board budget chair Bebe Joyner, the step increases are crucial if the system wants to keep high-quality teachers.
“I’d rather pay to keep those folks instead of having to start over with new teachers fresh out of college,” she said. “It takes time for a teacher to learn classroom management. Think of it as a training and experience increase.”
To balance the budget, Lewis proposed cutting 40 positions from central staff through attrition by June 2009. He also agreed to cut the German program in some schools and not fill four gang task force police slots originally in his budget proposal.
Looking forward, Lewis said he would also seek savings in transportation, public safety, public relations, student relations and plant services as well as determine which services the system could outsource.
“This is just the first of many steps to come,” said Lewis.
One of Lewis’ challenges will be to get spending on personnel under control. More than 91 percent of the system’s expenditures go toward salaries. The state recommended level is 86 percent.
Board members and the superintendent, who discussed the budget proposals in a three-hour meeting on May 10, urged the state to reinstate the austerity cuts in such a tough economy.
“Every year, we get less and less from the state,” said Lewis. “We have to anticipate we’re not getting much from the state.”
Joyner, who chaired the budget committee for the third time in her eight-year tenure, said while times are tough she appreciated the good-faith effort by the administration.
“I feel like for the first time in my eight years on the board we had a collaborative relationship,” she said.
Joyner, who indicated the budget has grown 30 percent in the past seven years yet enrollment is falling, said it’s time to start looking for slower growth.
“We must stop the growth of the school system budget now,” Joyner said.
According to school officials, the state has cut what it sends DeKalb by $93 million since 2002. In this year’s budget, $578 million comes from local property taxes while more than $443 million comes from state income taxes and another $60 million from the federal government.
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