MARIETTA - The Cobb County school board on Wednesday approved its final version of the $819.4 million budget for fiscal year 2011, which begins July 1.

Following a 30-minute discussion, Dr. John Crooks made the motion and the board voted 6-1, with Alison Bartlett dissenting, to approve the budget. Facing an unprecedented budget deficit of $126.7 million, and following the cut of more than 1,000 teachers, the $819.4 million balanced budget is set at 20.0 mills to offset the shortfall. While the current millage rate is at 18.9 mills, the board plans to set it at the maximum, 20.0 mills, in July, then immediately reduce it back to its current rate. The phantom tax hike will free up $23 million in excess funds from the second special purpose local option sales tax to be used for the FY11 budget.

After the vote, Bartlett said her decision to dissent was based on the district's lack of insight to plan ahead for the FY12 budget, which is likely to carry an even worse deficit.

"Next year we're going to be making a lot of hard choices and we have not set the vision of where we need to go on that," Bartlett said. " ... I don't see that vision continuing out when we know that we've got a stimulus cut going. I'm concerned about how we're handling our alternative education, Oakwood, we've got all of these freezes, we've got all of these furloughs and I feel like we just keep pushing it, pushing it, pushing it, and we know that one day it comes due. And next year may be the time it comes due and we haven't set the long-term vision on where we're going with that."

During the board's budget discussion, members Dr. John Abraham and David Banks brought up the possibility of using some of the district's reserve funds for the general fund budget, but Chief of Finance Mike Addison strongly advised against it. Although Addison projects the district will have about $67 million in the reserve fund at the end of FY10 on June 30, Addison said the district would likely need the funds to carry it through October, when the district receives one of its major sources of revenue through the yearly property tax collection.

Crooks agreed: "So the story is, it looks one way today. In September it's going to look a whole different way. In October, before the revenue starts coming back in, we're going to be upside-down, potentially, as much as $10 million. So as attractive as that number sounds, it's not practical to put the district in a financial position where we're always playing catch-up, in my opinion, like with a credit card, which is a good analogy for me."

Historically, the district has carried at least one month's expenses in its reserve funds, which means maintaining a fund balance of at least 8.33 percent of the total budget. With the FY11 budget that would be about $65.5 million.

Board Chairwoman Lynnda Crowder-Eagle commended the district's financial department for presenting a balanced budget in such difficult times.

"I do applaud the district, our financial services, for coming up with a balanced budget," Crowder-Eagle said following Wednesday's meeting. "I think that we have vetted it very well. Our public forums started early; that was something that we haven't done before and it was very important to me. We have looked at ideas that people have sent us, and any that were possible, legal, we have certainly considered. I truly think we have looked under every rock to find as much money as we could. In saying that, it saddens me that we've had to cut teachers."

In planning for the future, Crowder-Eagle said she would like to start next year's budget planning process in November, instead of in January.

Following the board meeting, an Atlanta TV news reporter asked board member David Morgan why he seemed to be surfing the Web on his laptop during the board's budget discussion. He later told the Journal: "I just simply told him that the board meetings are long, very long. Sometimes we rehash issues over and over. It's a marathon, and you've got to pace yourself ... It doesn't mean you're not engaged."

The board also discussed approving a waiver to increase class sizes above the state maximum size, a document that will likely be approved by the board and then passed along to the state Board of Education. On May 24, the state BoE voted to lift its regulation on class sizes for the 2010-11 school year. As part of the resolution, school districts are required to submit a letter of notification indicating they intend to increase class sizes beyond the old state-mandated maximum.

Dr. Judi Jones, the district's chief accountability and research officer, maintains that the district is working to keep classroom sizes at what they were this past year, at the state's previous maximum size. But Jones said that submitting the waiver would give the district flexibility to plan for classes in some areas of the district that might need to go higher than the previous state cap.

When Bartlett asked Jones and Dr. Steve Constantino, the deputy superintendent, for a solid number of the maximum size a class would reach next school year, Jones and Constantino were unable to give exact numbers, saying they would be averaged across the district.

When pried, Jones finally said: "A regular fifth grade is going to be 30 at max."

The Cobb school board voted 6-1, with Bartlett dissenting, at its May 12 meeting to increase class sizes to the then-state maximum level of one teacher for every 22 students in kindergarten; 23-to-1 for grades one through three; 30-to-1 in grades four and five; 30-to-1 in sixth through eighth; and 32-to-1 in grades nine through 12. The increases resulted in the layoff of more than 1,000 teachers.

In other board business, members discussed approving five-year charter contracts to two separate companies, Kid's Community College and Foundation Charter School, Inc. Staff recommended not approving both contracts, citing issues with the curriculum, funding and management of both companies. Since no representatives were at the meeting from Kid's Community College, the board will likely turn down that company's charter contract on June 24. At that meeting, the board will further discuss the charter for Foundation Charter School, which is requesting to place its K-8 charter school in west Cobb.

The board also discussed a contract to build a cell tower at McClure Middle School in Kennesaw. T-Mobile would pay the district $150,000 for the 15-year contract. Of that, 60 percent would go to McClure and the remaining money would go toward other district expenses.

The board is also poised to approve on June 24 a bid to three architects for improvements at three middle schools. Foreman-Seeley-Foundation of Norcross will be designing additions and modifications for Simpson Middle School in east Cobb; Perkins and Will of Atlanta will be designing additions and modifications for Garrett Middle School in Austell; and JEA Architects of Kennesaw will be designing additions and modifications for McCleskey Middle School in north Cobb.