Wednesday, June 18, 2003
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Wednesday, June 18, 2003 |
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$148 million budget: Fayette schools get less bang for buck than neighboring Coweta? By J. FRANK LYNCH
No one bothered to sign up for the public comment portion of Monday night's meeting of the Fayette County school board. That's not so unusual, except that Monday was the last opportunity for anybody other than school employees to publicly voice support or concern for the $148 million budget pending approval next week. In fact, it was the only advertised opportunity. Public comment, from start to finish, into the largest school operations budget in county history in tough economic times, no less was nonexistent. "That's just Fayette County," said BOE chair Terri Smith Monday night, an explanation that suggests taxpayer faith in the school district is strong, not that residents don't care how their money is spent. "They know they're getting a good product for the dollar." But not as good a bargain as some school districts, like neighboring Coweta County, are suggesting to the homefolks. Last week, Coweta schools public information office circulated a press release comparing their budget to Fayette's and suggesting it was much more efficient. "The total school system budget ... comes to $175,929,615," reads the Coweta letter. "For comparison, neighboring Fayette County has a full-time equivalent student count of 20,778, compared to Coweta County's 17,910" and a total budget, including operations and capital improvements, of $211,238,134, the press release states. The dollar amount Coweta cites for Fayette County's FY'04 full budget isn't explained, though it is close, Smith admitted. More shaky is Coweta's assertion, by including the "full-time student" enrollment figures, that it costs several hundred dollars less a year to educate a child there than in Fayette. It's apples and oranges, in effect. While both Coweta and Fayette avoided laying off or eliminating any instruction postions, Fayette is also managing to open a new elementary school and launch the 9th grade class of a new high school with few added staff. School budgets in Fayette County are always slightly higher than surrounding, similar communities, Smith pointed out, because Fayette chooses to fund extra programs and almost always has a building program underway. Still, it's a trend she said has just taken off this year as public awareness of shrinking funds has grown, to "comparison shop" school spending against Fayette County. "That's a fairly new phenomenom," Smith said. "Somebody in South Fulton asked me what we were spending, and said they spent a whole lot more per student. Turns out they spend twice as much on maintenance systemwide than we do." Smith said the board is committed to finding some kind of pay increase for teachers next year. A proposed 1 percent raise to start in July has been reduced to a possible half percent, and that wouldn't kick in until midyear. Coweta teachers won't be getting a raise either, but they'll also be short on supplies. Fayette managed to fund that portion of the budget. "I was happy we were able to keep their jobs and have materials to teach with," said Smith. "I talked with teachers who were disapointed, but I told them this was the year we all should be happy to have a job." A binding vote on the Fayette schools budget for 2003-04 will take place Monday at 4:30 p.m. at school system headquarters on Stonewall Avenue.
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