School Board in Augusta Set to Furlough Employees and Cut Teacher Pay

The Richmond County school board has passed a $225 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year, making up for a projected $24.5 million shortfall with employee furloughs, cuts in teachers' pay and reductions in teaching staff.

Many of the system's employees will face a furlough of four days -- and therefore cuts in pay. Teachers, who by state law cannot be furloughed, will still take a pay cut in local salary supplements they receive from the school board.

Dr. Dana Bedden, Richmond County schools superintendent:

"Please accept my apologies for any difficulties and hardships the furlough may create. While the furloughs were not something I would preferred, I really believed they were better than layoffs."

Bedden noted that about 90 percent of the school system's budget is personnel costs.

Despite the furloughs and pay cuts, many teachers and employees will still receive pay raises mandated by the state. The raises, known as step increases, will cover a portion of their incomes that they would otherwise lose with the furloughs.

The board is also eliminating several teaching positions through attrition and the non-renewal of some teacher contracts.

The budget comes as school systems across the state grapple with major funding issues due to the troubled economy and significant losses in revenue.

For more information about the budget, click here.

Clayton Schools To Cut Jobs, Salaries

Clayton County will cut 200 teaching jobs from its school system and effectively slash salaries for administrators and other employees. 100 staff members are also slated to lose jobs, although a county official says the hope is to trim jobs through attrition.

The action for the county just south of Atlanta will save more than $20 million from next year’s budget. Clayton already knows it will get $23 million less in funding from the state next year.

Clayton's school board voted 8-0 Monday night to approve the plan.

Gwinnett Schools Gain 'Flexibility'

Georgia's largest school district will become the first to take advantage of a new law giving more flexibility on class size and teacher pay. Today the state school board unanimously approved a plan for Gwinnett County to have more say in how to organize schools, how large classes should be and how to use state funding. In exchange, the county promised that students will perform better than is required under federal No Child Left Behind standards. Gwinnett County parents and teachers expressed concern over the proposal, worried that classes could grow too large and that the district won't have enough state oversight.

(Associated Press)

Augusta schools may face system-wide rezoning

Augusta's Richmond County school system is considering a massive system-wide rezoning as student enrollment drops there.

Augusta has about 1000 less students than it did this time four years ago, and that's costing money.

The rezoning is part of the school board's efforts to save money by streamlining or consolidating schools.

The superintendent, Dr. Dana Bedden, is recommending the rezoning. He's also anticipating tensions from the community that might result.

"In the end, we hope people will see and feel that it wasn't a rush decision, and no one's being picked on because there was an opinion based on race or socioeconomic status or the haves and the have nots," says Bedden. "It's going to be based on what's good for the system."

School officials are unclear how much rezoning would cost initially, or how much cost savings...the ultimate goal...will be.

The rezoning is still just a proposal. The process will involve public hearings, and it must comply with a federal court desegregation order.

Augusta considers paying schools that conserve energy

Schools are having to find ways to save money in these days of economic stress and high utility bills.

In Augusta...some officials say the best way for schools to bring down their power bills...give them money.

A plan under review would reward each school with ten percent of the money saved on utilities each month...That money could go to school supplies...the schools' general fund budgets...or other uses...

School officials urge teachers, staff and students to turn off lights and computer monitors when not in their classrooms.

The school system's power bill last year was $6 million dollars.

Officials say power use is already down ten percent this year, but rate increases have prevented financial savings.

Under the plan, the goal would be to cut utility usage by 20-30 percent this year.

The schools are already living with a temperature control policy implemented this year.

The thermostat in each school must remain at 78 degrees in the summer and 68 degrees in the winter.

DeKalb schools weighing painful cuts

DeKalb County schools are grappling with pending job cuts. The system's proposal puts more than 200 employees in danger of losing their jobs in the county’s effort to save money. Three different options are being considered for the job cuts--ranging from mid-level administrators, to groundskeepers, to drivers-education instructors. Cuts are NOT being considered for teachers positions, janitors and media specialists. The moves could be made as early as December.

Clayton Co. school board cancels meeting over elections

Lacking a quorum, the Clayton County school board has canceled its Monday meeting and delayed all business another two weeks.

Acting board chairwoman Alieka Anderson says the delay until Sept. 22 means the three-member board can add new members.

Two candidates are competing for the District 6 seat in a Sept. 16 special election. The winner will be sworn in before the Sept. 22 meeting along with Jessie Goree, who is unopposed in November for District 3.

The 50,000-student district has lost its accreditation with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

The board is supposed to have nine members.

Gov. Sonny Perdue removed four board members last month after a state administrative judge found they violated the state code of ethics and Open Meetings Act.

Four other members resigned and one was removed for not living in the county.

(The Associated Press)

Click here for more GPB News coverage about the Clayton County school district's loss of accreditation.

Schools May Come Under State Control

When the state Department Of Education’s AYP or Adequate Yearly Progress report is issued later this month, it’s estimated nearly 70 schools will be designated as needs improvement.

Under a pilot program sponsored by the federal government, those schools will be allowed to participate in an alternative accountability plan.

The new plan calls for Georgia schools faced with more than five years of needs improvement status to come under direct supervision of the state.

The federal Differentiated Accountability Plan allows schools to design alternative plans to the highly structured No Child Left Behind Act.

Previously, the state waited to intervene until a school was in needs improvement status for seven consecutive years.

Dana Tofig is with the Georgia Department of Education.

“The school and state enter into a contract. And, the contract says the school is going do these things to try to improve and the state is going to do these things to try to help them. We’re just there to provide assistance. Also try to provide some level of accountability. We are now a party to a contract that says ‘we’re going to improve this school.’

The state will pay for a full-time school improvement specialist at each of the more than 60 schools expected to be deemed needs improvement.

The plan will not abolish local school board or eliminate school administrators.

Georgia Education Department to ask for summer school funds

Schools around the state are bracing for a surge in summer school students after a high rate of failure on this year's standardized math test.

That could cost money.

The Georgia Department of Education will ask the state school board for $1.4 million dollars to help with extra remediation programs this summer.

About 40 percent of eighth graders failed the math portion of the Criterion Referenced Competency Test this year, according to early estimates.

By law, 8th graders have to pass the test to advance to the 9th grade.

Schools are still trying to determine how many students will take the summer classes.

And officials are unsure if the extra dollars will be enough.

"What we've asked the school systems to do is to keep very good records on the cost of summer school this year, and then, if needed, we can try to bring forward a supplemental request to the legislature in January," said Dana Tofig, a spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education.

The CRCT is a harder test, an explanation for the high failure rate.

Students are not required to attend summer school, but the classes are supposed to help students prepare for a re-test.

School pulls lunchmeat after slaughterhouse violations

School Superintendent Kathy Cox today cautioned parents not to overreact about the possibility that tainted meat may have been in their kids school lunch.

A video shot by the Humane Society of the Westland slaughterhouse in California shows downed cows that may have made it into the school lunch supply. Twenty-eight of Georgia’s public school systems (listed below) received meat from there and the USDA has shut down the plant. Federal officials are investigating whether the cows were part of that supply. Because of a fear of mad cow disease, downed cows are banned from the food supply.

Earlier this month, State School Superintendent Kathy Cox ordered cafeterias to pull the meat. "I just want to tell parents," said Cox. "It’s o.k. We’ve not gotten any report of there being any sick children in Georgia. And I want to tell parents this is all done in an abundance of caution."

More than 170 thousand pounds of beef is on hold in Georgia. Cox says she expects to hear on Monday, whether it’s save or not.

The school systems of the following counties received meat from the plant under investigation:

Barrow, Bartow, Carroll, Carrollton, Cartersville, Cherokee, Clayton, Cobb, Coffee, Dalton, Decatur, Dekalb, Fannin, Floyd, Forsyth, Fulton, Gordon, Grady, Griffin-Spalding, Gwinnett, Jackson, Lamar, Marion, Murray, Muscogee, Newton, Pickens, and Tift.

Discipline incidents not reported to state quickly

About 2000 incidents of student discipline problems at a middle school in Augusta were not initially reported to state officials during the 2005-2006 school year, according to an investigation by the Richmond County school board attorney.

Last year, Murphey Middle School ranked as one of the most dangerous schools in Georgia.

But this year, it came off the state's list of persistently dangerous schools.

A Richmond County school board member says sloppy record keeping was to blame, and that administrators started reporting the incidents late in the school year.

School officials say the reporting failure has nothing to do with Murphey coming off the dangerous schools list.

The federal government requires states to compile a list based on the number of violent felonies or lesser crimes, such as drugs or weapons possession, committed at schools.

States use the lists to assist schools in addressing the problem.

Federal law also allows public school choice for students who attend those schools, or who have been victims of violent crimes.

State schools take on bomb threats

Officials in Augusta say their schools are getting far too many bomb threats.

They're joining school boards across the state in an effort to punish the parents of students who make those threats.

Officials say 70 bomb threats came in to schools alone in Richmond County last year.

The public safety response to each threat typically costs the county about $4000 to $8000.

The Georgia School Boards Association says bomb threats are a problem across the state.

Now, they want the legislature to pass a law holding parents accountable for a student's terroristic threats, school violence and theft.

"When we're taking and diverting resources from safety personnel to respond to a false alarm, that means someone else is not getting service and we are passing on a burden of cost to taxpayers that shouldn't be there, because of something that was not a real issue to them," says Dana Bedden, the Richmond County school superintendent.

The threats also disrupt classes, since principals often evacuate the students.

Suspects are often students, according to officials with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

In Richmond County, officials say some of the suspects are middle schoolers.

Augusta school officials oppose tax reform plan

School officials in Augusta are going on record against a controversial tax reform plan.

The Richmond County school board has voted to formally oppose the tax plan for education proposed by Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram).

They will take their opposition before legislators at a breakfast on Thursday.

The plan would eliminate a portion of property taxes, replacing education dollars with expanded sales taxes.

But school officials in Augusta fear they would lose control of local education funds.

"Now, we're working under a system where the local authorities have the ability to cut taxes or raise taxes to support a system that the public will support," said Jack Padgett, a Richmond County school board member. "I'm just not sure that anytime you send money away that you would get it all back."

Richardson eventually wants to eliminate all property taxes.

"Property taxes are rising faster than people's ability to pay them, and it is time that local governments stop balancing their checkbooks on the backs of homeowners," said Clelia Davis, a spokeswoman for Richardson. "All we are asking is for the citizens of Georgia to have the right to vote and decide whether they want to eliminate property taxes and change the system. That is the ultimate form of local control."

The Georgia School Boards Association, meanwhile, says only a few school systems so far have asked them for assistance in drafting resolutions opposing the plan. Richardson has dubbed the plan GREAT, which stands for Georgians for the Repeal of Every Ad Valorem Tax.

11 staph infections in Columbia County

School officials in eastern Georgia are reporting that 11 students have staph infections. Officials in the Columbia County school system say the students are at nine schools -- elementary, middle and high schools. They say none of the cases are related. The students all have Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), an infection resistant to commonly used antibiotics, such as penicillin, but treatable with other antibiotics. The students' infections are also all on their skin, and not considered life-threatening. Reports of the diagnoses have come into the school system over the last two weeks. The Centers for Disease Control typically does not recommend isolation for MRSA, but school officials in Columbia County are requiring students to stay home until their lesions stop oozing. "We want to err on the side of caution," said Dr. Sandra Carraway, a deputy schools superintendent. She says parents and students, though, shouldn't panic, but they should take precautions. "They can help us by encouraging their children not to share their personal items, to wash their p.e. clothes daily, to keep their hands washed, and if they have a wound, just to monitor it to make sure it's healing properly. School officials say they've sanitized classrooms and other areas where the students might have been. For more information, go to www.ccboe.net or www.cdc.gov.

New poll shows support for school vouchers

A small coalition that assembled at the State Capitol cited a new poll conducted by the conservative firm Strategic Vision. The poll found 60 percent of respondents like school choice and vouchers for all children.

“We do feel that academic justice is important for not just disabled students, but also minorities and low-income students,” said Jamie Self of the Georgia Family Council.

Sen. Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) is sponsoring a bill that would create state vouchers only for special-needs students. There’s not enough support for a broader voucher measure “because there are a lot of parts of this state, rural areas, that don’t have a private-school network,” Johnson says. “Then, there are good public school systems like Gwinnett or Cobb, where they see vouchers as threatening what they have.”

Johnson’s bill, SB 10, already passed the Senate but time is running out in the House. The House Education Committee is expected to vote on the bill this week.

House would let class sizes grow

The Georgia House has voted to relax limits on high school class sizes. Without this leeway, “We’d force the systems to go to 28 [students] without any flexibility,” said House Education Committee Chairman Brooks Coleman (R-Duluth). “Immediately, they’d have to have extra classrooms, find extra teachers. We have not provided funds locally for this.”

The bill, as passed, would allow up to 32 students in most high school academic classes.

Democrats called the bill hypocritical. Rep. Kathy Ashe (D-Atlanta) recalled the “Sonny Did” commercials from Gov. Sonny Perdue’s re-election campaign.

“For too long, no one did enough to improve education in Georgia, until Sonny did,” she quoted. “Test scores are going up and class sizes are going down. That’s what Sonny did. Why would we ever go back?”

The bill still needs Senate approval.