Before the monthly board meeting at 7 p.m., the board will conduct a workshop to discuss plans for its fiscal year 2011 budget, which is to be adopted in June. Chairwoman Lynnda Crowder-Eagle said the workshop would be televised.
"It's so critical what we're all going through," Crowder-Eagle said about the budget cuts. "I think the more that you can let people actually hear what we're up against I think it's better."
After its Feb. 10 meeting, the board conducted a workshop to discuss budget cuts for next year. Mike Addison, the district's chief financial officer, presented the board with an overview of how the FY11 budget was looking, but the board was unable to have a discussion on budget cuts because of time constraints. That's where they will pick up today.
The district is expecting a budget shortfall of between $60 and $100 million.
Crowder-Eagle will announce tonight that she is planning to conduct four town hall-style budget meetings in locations throughout the county to explain the budget and the cuts the district is facing. She said district spokesman Jay Dillon is helping her arrange the programs, which are slated to start on either March 9 or March 16.
Crowder-Eagle said she would like to highlight the difference between SPLOST funds and regular funds and clear up any misconceptions on how these monies can be spent.
"Because some people, and I'm not saying everyone, might be under the impression that you could use SPLOST money to pay for teacher salaries," Crowder-Eagle said. "We want to show the different kind of buckets of money and what they can be used for."
After months of discussion and planning, the board is also set to approve an architect for a new Clarkdale Elementary School, replacing the old school, which was ruined by the September floods.
Per the board's request, district staff will present a revised and more detailed budget, which includes funding sources, for the new Clarkdale school. The amended school budget is nearly $19.3 million and includes $1.8 million in funding from FEMA and GEMA.
At the board-appointed Facilities and Technology committee meeting Monday night, Doug Shepard, who oversees the district's SPLOST program, told the committee that the district is still negotiating with FEMA on its ruling that the old Clarkdale site is OK for rebuilding.
The board has pulled from the agenda an item regarding classroom additions at Clay Elementary School. This renovation was slated to be paid for by the undesignated classroom fund, the same fund which will help pay for a new Clarkdale school.
Crowder-Eagle said she pulled it from the agenda, with the consent of the board, because she feels Clarkdale needs to be addressed first, before any other school renovations.
"We all just kind of decided we really want to look at the Clarkdale item before we look at other things because we really have a limited amount of money for undesignated classrooms," the board chair said.
The board is also scheduled to vote to award a number of construction and architectural bids for other school improvement projects - including renovations at Lassiter High School and demolition of a vocational building at North Cobb High School.
Oddly enough, still on the agenda for tonight's meeting is a vote to award a construction contract to install artificial turf at each of Cobb's 16 high schools, the same vote that a judge ruled to halt on Tuesday after a hearing regarding a lawsuit to stop the district from using SPLOST money on the turf.
Dillon said the turf item was simply kept on the agenda because the board approved that agenda at its last work session on Feb. 10.
"It won't come up for discussion any way you look at it," Dillon said.
Superintendent Fred Sanderson was slated to give a state of the system address tonight, but that has been canceled because of a "way too crowded agenda," Dillon said. Dillon went on to say that if Sanderson does give the address, it would be during the board's March 10 work session.
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You make a GREAT argument regarding these singular positions being eliminated. And you are right to note that the County is now putting students in rooms they would have to heat/cool anyway.
However, in the long-term, what does the County do about the adjacent schools (like Hollydale and Sanders) being at or over capacity under a redistricting plan? In addition, by keeping the Clarkdale students at Compton and Austell Intermediate, has the County now also placed these schools at capacity and unable to address any future growth?
By redistricting, is the County creating a situation where they will need to place additions on Hollydale, Sanders, Compton, and Austell Intermediate in the future? Or can they build a new school that handles Clarkdale students as well as overcrowding at two other schools - while allowing Compton and Austell Intermediate to remain under census in the short-term and able to cope with future growth without any future expansion.
I am aware that this is a decision that goes beyond the 400 of Clarkdale. I do not feel the students of Clarkdale are "'entitled' to a new school regardless of other issues." However, I sometimes wonder how others might address their elementary-aged children losing their home and school/community in one 24-hour period. I have found that it doesn't always give a person/community a sense of entitlement; however, it does give a sense of focus not entirely understood by those that have not experienced such loss.
All that being said...I would agree with you and feel that nothing is wrong with redistricting the Clarkdale students, if it proves to be the cost effective decision for all the schools involved. However, I am not sure redistricting would provide the savings that everyone assumes.
The operating costs at the neighboring schools will go up some, but guess what, those formerly empty rooms were being heated and air conditioned with NO occupants. Now at least, the district is being a little more energy efficient by heating and cooling rooms with kids in them. More significant in operating costs are the elimination of the singular positions that all schools must have like a principal, AP, secretary, school nurse, media specialist, food service manager, head custodian, etc., etc. The number of teachers need to teach the Clarkdale students would remain the same, but the costs for these singular positions will go away. Big savings in a bad budget.
What's wrong with redistricting the kids to adjacent schools with empty rooms?
You are right to say the kids were moved to empty classes at Compton and Austell and Calrkdale's families are happy that the CCSD did their best to keep our kids classes together during a time of real unrest for families. However, this solution was always considered temporary because those schools are not the "neighboring schools" for Clarkdale families - they just happened to be the closest schools with space to spare.
Your point on additional operating costs is flawed for two reasons. Under your proposal, the operating costs at the neighboring schools would have to go up as they increased their census. Otherwise, you are proposing to educate 400 additional students at schools without adding one dollar to those school's operating budget. Who will teach these children? What will they eat? How will they get to school? Even if you relocate the students rather than build a new school, the cost of educating them would be passed onto the other schools.
Secondly, the additional transportation costs associated with continuing to move students from Clarkdale to these schools is no small cost to the District. Building a school in the community could prove a long-term savings in transportation costs.
Finally, the "neighboring schools" that Clarkdale student would more than likely be sent to in redistricting, like Sanders and Hollydale, are currently over capacity with portables. The CCSD proposes building a new school that will not just serve the existing population of Clarkdale - it will address the overcrowding of those schools by redistricting them to Clarkdale. For all the dialogue about eliminating portables, I would think the citizens of Cobb would welcome a plan that gets our kids out of trailers and into a free-standing building. I am a Clarkdale parent so you can accuse me of bias, but I think the Board is actually doing the right thing at a time when it is difficult to make such choices. This proposal does not just rebuild Clarkdale - it helps address issues at other crowded schools in Cobb.