Wednesday, June 4, 2003
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Wednesday, June 4, 2003 |
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Tax hike ahead: BOE OKs $148.6M budget
By J. FRANK LYNCH
It was supposed to hold the line on spending, avoid a tax hike, include pay raises for all employees and staff two new schools with no new hires. There's always next year. After weeks of number crunching, Fayette County Schools administrators handed over a $148 million spending plan to the Board of Education on Monday night, a record budget in a year of severe revenue shortages. With little discussion, the board gave tentative approval. A final, binding vote is set for 4:30 p.m. Monday, June 23. Witnessing the historic event this week Fayette's proposed spending is the highest ever and nearly $5 million more than last year were a handful of central office employees, and one member of the media. It includes a .646 mill increase in property taxes to fund the Maintenance and Operations portion of the budget, or about $51.68 to the owner of a $200,000 house. But public input into the budgeting process was next to nil, with few or no parents, taxpayers or teachers showing up at any of the board's workshops. But most every family with a child enrolled in a Fayette County school will feel the impact of tighter spending next year. Paraprofessionals who were in the classroom last year will be gone in some instances next fall, spread around to fill the jobs created by the opening of Crabapple Lane Elementary in Peachtree City. Longtime math and science teachers at Fayette County, McIntosh or Sandy Creek high schools will be gone too, staffing the freshman class of Whitewater Creek High housed at the LaFayette Education Center. An earlier proposed 1 percent pay increase to be given to all employees, teachers and non-certified alike, has now been reduced to a "possible" half-percent increase, and that won't be considered until midyear adjustments because of concerns about monthly revenue streams from the state. The best teachers and other employees can hope for is a 1 percent, six-month increase starting in January. Other highlights of the plan: · Almost 70 percent of all spending, or $103 million, goes to pay salaries and benefits for employees. · While everyone may not get a raise come January, teachers who are scheduled for "step" increases based on the state's tenure system will get their salary adjustment, which is being paid entirely from local funds. ·A new sport, girls volleyball, will be fully funded in the middle schools. ·Money has been designated to staff all home high school and middle school football games with on-site medical personnel. ·An ongoing effort to consolidate and streamline the types of PCs used in all areas, from classroom teaching to front-office data processing, will require spending $500,000 on new Dell computers. · Instead of buying 20 new buses, as has been standard yearly practice of late, the district will lease the buses next year. · Some of those buses may be used on routes that previously included private roads. No more. Starting in the fall, buses will pick up students who live on private streets and developments at a centrally located, designated bus stop. This includes primarily apartment complexes and mobile home parks, but also Whitewater Creek Country Club. On this page: a program-by-program summary of the budget.
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