Local school system facing additional cuts

TIFTON — The local public school system has again been asked to cut additional funding for 2011 and will lose an additional $900,000 in equalization funding in 2012 because of the declining tax base.

Tift County School Superintendent Patrick Atwater said Tuesday that equalization funding is based on property tax assessments from three years ago. Atwater said the state has asked the Georgia Department of Education to come up with additional 4,6 and 8 percent reductions for 2011 and 6, 8 and 10 percent reductions for 2012.

“Since 2003, we have lost almost $20 million in state funding,” Atwater said.

Atwater said he began planning the 2012 local school budget a month ago.

“You really can’t plan for a lot of it, but you just try to stay ahead of the information coming out of Atlanta,” Atwater said. “You try to keep what you have and spend wisely and pray for the rest of the time.”

The school system has not laid off any employees, Atwater said, but has lost 30 positions through attrition. That has caused class size to increase slightly. The state cut six days of pay last year, but the local school system found a way to finance three of those days. The payroll for school system employees is approximately $200,000 per day for an average salary and benefit package of $50,000 annually.

“If you look at furlough days last year at $200,000 per day, that is the equivalent of 24 people losing their jobs,” Atwater said. “We took three furlough days last year. Some counties in our area are taking 10-14 furlough days.”

All of the projects delayed by the school board are funded by Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax revenue.

“We put those projects off until we had the money collected to pay for them,” Atwater said.

Those projects include replacement of heating and air conditioning units at Northeast Campus of Tift County High School; a new agriculture and science classroom at Tift County High School; and a new canning plant.

TCHS agricultural students have operated the plant behind the Charles Kent Administration Building under the direction of agricultural education teachers for years. The building belongs to Tift County.

“The county has been kind enough to use it since the mid-80s on a gentlemen’s agreement,” Atwater said. “They need the space and we need more room at the high school.”

The three projects are currently out for bid.

The Tift County Board of Education and the City of Tifton adopted their 2010-2011 tax millage rates this week with no increase from last year.

In June, the BOE passed a $50.6 million 2010-2011 budget and set the tentative millage rate at 14.964 mills, the same as last year’s.

To contact senior reporter Angie Thompson, call 382-4321.

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