The Fayette County Board of Education was given a detailed preview of the proposed $191 million general fund budget for the 2007-2008 school year at its regular meeting Monday night. And a school tax increase might be ahead.

The proposed budget is a $12 million increase over the current year’s budget, and Comptroller Lee Davis noted the system is experiencing rising costs for insurance in all categories and communications costs through AT&T (formerly BellSouth) are also increasing. Also, the system is facing having to fund an increase of more than $500,000 in technology largely to replace old computers.

Schools and departments were asked to cut their individual budgets by 5 percent this year to accommodate the continued “austerity” cuts in state funding, Davis said. This year the state funding cuts will be close to $2.4 million, he said, but so far Fayette hasn’t had to cut any of its art, music and physical education offerings because of the cuts, unlike other school systems, Davis said.

Davis is suggesting that the board increase the millage rate slightly for this coming year to avoid having a shortfall at the end of the year. He noted that growth in the property tax digest hasn’t been as strong this year with the downturn in home sales.

Davis suggested there was a way to slightly increase the main millage rate yet roll back the bond millage rate to offset the property tax increase for taxpayers.

The board likely won’t set the millage rate until the end of July, and its possible there could be some adjustments to the proposed budget between now and then. The budget will be presented again for discussion at the board’s May 21 meeting.

The budget presented to the board Monday night does not include money for a salary survey, and board member Janet Smola said that concerned her because she worries about losing teachers to other school systems. There was no immediate estimate available for how much that might cost. The last one was done about seven years ago, officials said.

It was also announced that Davis will be leaving the school system in a few weeks to take a position at Henry County Public Schools, although he will still help Fayette out at times. Davis said he appreciated the support of the board and top school officials during his tenure.

In other business, the board learned about tentative plans to cluster students in the English as a Second Language (ESOL) program at various schools throughout the county. That way teachers wouldn’t lose instructional time by traveling from school to school; this would allow them to help students in other courses and also help train faculty, said Terri Gaspierik, director of secondary education and professional learning.

The logistics will be worked out so that students don’t spend an extra half-hour or more on the bus when they are sent to their “cluster” school near their normally zoned school, Gaspierik noted.