Why are we losing three more days?

I hate it! You hate it! The Board of Education hates it! So, why are we having to give up three more days in this school year? Well, let me take you back to the beginning of this school year. The fiscal year began July, 2009. Over 85% of the budget is taken up by salaries and benefits for the more than 6000 employees in the Muscogee County School District. We are not out of the ordinary. That is true of all school districts. Immediately after the budget was passed, we were told that the revenue which was projected to fund the State's budget was not being collected. School districts had to cut their budgets by 3.5% AND the Governor was going to withhold three days of salary funds from schools AND that we would most likely be getting additional cuts after the first of the year (2010). The 3.5% of our budget amounted to over $8 million dollars. Many districts laid off employees. We worked hard and put our heads together and found the $8 million dollars to cut and took the three days of furlough. We did receive the stimulus stabilization money from the federal government and that allowed us to transfer some salaries that were paid with State money to the Federal budgets in order to save jobs. That is how we found much of the $8 million we needed for the first round of cuts.
The revenue for the State continued to be collected at 15%, 16% less than was projected. Each month of collections looked more dismal than the month before. We were anticipating more cuts and more days off. When the General Assembly met in Atlanta for the 2010 session the Governor made his recommendations to them. For this current year, he recommended cutting K-12 education another 1.5% and withholding another three days of salary. I was determined that we wouldn't take three more days and called in our Chief Financial Officer and other cabinet members. We combed through the budget looking for more cuts. We found the 1.5% and that was difficult because by now we have only five months left in this fiscal year, only four more months of schools and half the money budgeted has already been spent - much of it on diesel fuel, electricity, textbooks, professional development, and other fixed costs that school districts have. I told the Cabinet that I wanted to find a way to absorb one of the three days so our employees would have to take only two more days off. One day of salaries in Muscogee County equals a little over one million dollars. We finally came to the conclusion that we couldn't cut another 1.5 percent and absorb another million. We looked at taking it out of our fund balance, but this past year we had to use $11 million dollars of that to balance this year's budget. Next year, we will have less stimulus money, less state money, and less other federal dollars. If we use it now, we will have to lay off employees in order to balance the budget next year. We struggled with the decision.
Someone asked why we were moving ahead when this was just a recommendation of the Governor. Well, we needed to determine which days to take and if we had to take them, we wanted to spread out the deductions over as many months as possible to lessen the impact each month on salaries.
Some have commented that there are districts not taking the additional days. I know of one system. The superintendent of that district stated that the system has $40 million dollars in their fund balance; therefore, he could afford to take the money from the fund balance. Their local property values have exploded in the past several years providing them with a great cushion for these hard times. That system is not typical. I have talked to Superintendents all over the State of Georgia and many are in worse shape than we are in. Many are having to borrow money to stay afloat. Some have gone to four day weeks; some have shortened the school year.
I hope it doesn't come to that for us. Even though we could lengthen the school day and go to four-day weeks, we all know that the morning is prime learning time for students when both they and their teachers are fresh. Teaching is hard work and it is hard to stay enthusiastic and engaging as the day goes along.
We will make it through these tough times and when I am in the schools, I see great teaching and students working hard. We have many challenges but I have never seen a time when educators didn't step up and do whatever it takes to make sure students get what they need. This time will be no different. Teachers are strong and resilient. Your children are in good hands!!