In what shape are school systems ending this fiscal year? Did they have to dig deep into their surpluses to make ends meet? In Sunday’s Times, we’ll take a look at the budget outlooks for the Gainesville and Hall County systems going into the 2010 school year.
The Hall County school board approved a $211.3 million budget Thursday that includes a 2.4 percent pay cut for nearly all school system employees in the upcoming school year.
The spending plan estimates it will cost $204.4 million to run the school system from July 1 to June 30, 2010.
Hall County schools Deputy Superintendent Lee Lovett said unless the state cuts funding further, the remaining $6.9 million will be added to the system’s existing $5 million surplus.
Hall County schools Superintendent Will Schofield said only nurses, paraprofessionals and national board-certified teachers will be exempt from the 2.4 percent pay cut this upcoming school year.
The pay cuts generate more than $3.8 million of savings, Schofield said.
Schofield said the groups exempt from pay cuts are slated for other substantial blows to their income.
He said paraprofessionals will have their days cut from 190 to 183 in the 2009-10 school year. And nurses already are experiencing a 7 percent cut because they are losing a half hour each day in the upcoming school year.
National board-certified teachers also are slated to lose a “significant portion” of their state-promised 10 percent supplement, Schofield said.
Schofield’s $188,220 salary will be cut 3.4 percent or $6,400. The superintendent also gave up a 5 percent raise last year and this year, which equates to $18,400 of foregone pay in addition to the 3.4 percent salary cut for the upcoming fiscal year.
School board members’ monthly $650 salaries will be cut $50.
The system eliminated 140 teaching, paraprofessional, district and maintenance positions during the 2008-09 school year through non-renewed teaching contracts and attrition.
Schofield said the system has hired 10 teachers so far this summer, but has no immediate plans to hire more until enrollment numbers settle this fall.
Hall County school board Chairman Richard Higgins said he is pleased with the final budget for fiscal year 2010, which begins July 1.
“I think we’ve done the best job that we could do with limited resources,” he said. “I think we’re in good shape.”
Higgins said he is pleased the system was able to retain nurses, school resource officers and nearly all academic programs for the 2009-10 school year despite ending a fiscal year fettered by more than $6 million in state cuts.
About $2.7 million of federal stabilization funds helped offset the system’s state cuts, Lovett said.
Schofield also said Thursday he hopes the school system will be able to obtain IE2 status by November, which could allow the system to opt out of House Bill 251. The law goes into effect July 1 and requires systems to offer school choice at schools below capacity.
Charter schools and schools 4 years old and younger are exempt from the school choice law.
The superintendent said he has concerns compliance with the new law would require the system to make costly personnel adjustments as students shift between different schools in the district.