From the agenda of the next school board meeting…

Requested Action

2)Awarding the Superintendent 96.7% of the Performance Bonus for successfully meeting goals for the 2008-2009 school year;

3)The Superintendent’s request to defer the Performance Bonus Award until the end of the 2009-2010 school year so the health of the budget can be adequately assessed.

Financial Impact

The contract states that the Board may award up to $20,000 to the Superintendent for meeting the performance goals. It should be noted that [at] the 2008 Retreat, the Superintendent met a substantial percentage of the stated goals and refused to accept the approximate award of $15,000.

It should also be noted that the Superintendent did not request a raise and her salary will remain as per the 2008-2009 contract. However, teachers and staff received an approximate bump of 2.5%.

And that was done in spite of a larger than expected ($6.4 million) fund balance, which is the focus of another agenda item that looks to reduce the fund balance by over $1 million to $5.6 million infusing that money back into the system after the $2 million cuts earlier this year.  (see Agenda Action Item “a” for more details)

Here’s a breakdown of how City Schools of Decatur plan to use the roughly $1.1 million in federal stimulus money it will receive this year.  (Data and details taken from Action Item D from the July 14th agenda)

$444,100 - (Salary and benefits)  “2.5 regular education paraprofessionals from Oakhurst, 2.5 regular education paraprofessionals from Winnona Park, and 2 regular education paraprofessionals from Clairemont to the federal stimulus account codes. Also, 1 K-3 spanish teacher from each elementary school will be coded to federal stimulus funding.”

$18,000 - (supplemental pay items) District staff with 5 or more day reduction will have up to 4 days restored “About 45% of the employees in this category requested additional days to be able to complete certain tasks.”

$75,000 – City of Decatur After School program

$10,000 -  system professional learning

$125,000 – 50% of additional operating expenditures allocation – “$55,000 for instructional materials and supplies, $50,000 for instructional technology (primarily ActivBoards), $10,000 for professional learning fees and travel, and $10,000 for media books and materials.”

$25,000 – rising 9th grade leadership camp

$178,900 - salary and benefits for “2 of the learning lab teachers at the high school, a part-time IB coordinator at the high school, and the rising 9th grade leadership camp”

$228,300 – part-time RTI specialist, an inclusion teacher at the middle school, a new self-contained teacher at the middle school, a new paraprofessional to support the new inclusion teacher, and a paraprofessional at Glennwood.

$10,000 - occupational and physical therapy services

$5,000 – early childhood supplemental services

$5,000 – assistive/adaptive instructional technology equipment

$3,200 – GNETS

$10,000 - professional learning fees and travel

Like there wasn’t already ENOUGH being presented and voted on at tomorrow’s CSD Board of Ed meeting! (Westchester – 6:30p).

According to this recent AJC article, the superintendent’s proposed budget cuts for the 2009-10 school year focus mainly on jobs “by not hiring, by attrition or by eliminating part-time positions which are typically filled by individuals who are retired.”

According to the article, both the Frasier Center and the popular elementary school foreign language program will be saved, though fees at the Frasier Center must be raised to make the program “self-supporting”.

You can view the full list of proposed cuts, along with their estimated cost HERE.

In an effort to be proactive about potential budget cuts, Decatur is the first school system in the state to prepare a slimmer budget for next year. We still don’t know how big (or small) the cuts will be, but in the overview letter for tomorrow’s meeting, Dr. Edwards estimates they could range between 3%-10%.

The AJC’s Kristina Torres does an admirable job of summing up Dr. Phyllis Edwards’ task of “trimming” a cool $2 mil from CSD’s budget in this morning’s paper.

Because Edwards wants the new budget in hand before teachers renew contracts in March, Decatur will probably be one of the first school systems in the state to announce cutbacks in the coming year.  According to the article, the current options on the chopping block including the child development center at DHS, the foreign language program for K-5, teacher aides for the elementary school, 6 middle school teachers, and 2 art, music and phys ed teachers K-5.  We should know by mid-January, which options will be selected.

All sound quite regrettable to me, but as I’ve said in the past, I’m reassured to see our school system being so forthright and proactive in both good times and bad.