More deep cuts, school closure to be considered by Stephens County BOE today

TOCCOA - The Stephens County Board of Education will consider a proposal from School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey tonight that would begin the process of cutting another $1.9 million in system expenses.

That proposal includes the closure of Eastanollee Elementary School, restructuring of all lower grades in the system, and reduction in force by some 40 more positions.

Stephens County Assistant Superintendent Terri Powers said earlier today the proposal would place Pre-K and kindergarten at Big A Elementary, first and second grades at Liberty Elementary, third at fourth grades at Toccoa Elementary, and would create a fifth grade academy downstairs at Stephens County Middle School, keeping sixth, seventh and eighth grades upstairs at that school.

"We knew that we needed to make reductions to the FY16 budget year, which will begin July 1, in order to begin to solve the problem." Powers said. "Our target that would solve our issue was $2.6 million of cuts that we needed to do."

A round of cuts in February helped fortify system finances to make payroll and payments on Tax Anticipation Notes through December of this year.

In February, Powers said closing a school wasn't possible, but continued rumors in the community gave system officials pause to study any viable options.

"That's where the plan of consolidating schools began to come about - just from all the rumors that people kept throwing to us," Powers said. "We kept wondering how we were missing this and they had figured it out. We just started taking those rumors and trying to think out of the box with them."

Powers also discussed how the reduction of 40 positions will be accomplished.

"We're trying to use all of our retirements to shift people into positions if their positions have been cut," Powers said. "For instance, going from four elementary schools to three we know we need one less counselor, so we have one counselor that's retiring.

"Not all of the reductions result in people losing their jobs," Powers said. "Some will unfortunately result in that. I think our total that I looked at earlier would be about 25 people that we're not currently able to place into other positions. Out of those positions, five are certified personnel. There's about 40 positions overall that have been cut, out out of the 40 we only have about 25 people left that we can't re-place somewhere right now."

Powers stressed the reductions would not be in effect until July 1.

"This fiscal year, everybody remains where they are," Powers said. "They'll continue doing the work that they are, and they continue to get paid for this full year of service."

Staff members were made aware of the possible cuts during staff meetings Monday.

Despite the proposed school closure and reduction in force, the system still will have furlough days for the next few years.

"If we do this, we will still hold with 16 furlough days next year, but we're projecting by the following year - which will be '16-'17 - that we can drop to 10," Powers said. "We could drop to five the next year, and we could be back to full calendar the following year."

The 16 is up by seven over the original nine that officials thought would fill the financial gap.

"If we could get to the $2.6 [million], that would solve it quicker - but I mean we're cutting deep," Powers said. "We just cannot find other solutions to get to the full $2.6 [million]. This is as close as we can bring it. Anything less than this - let's say the board rejects this plan and we are able to reduce a lesser amount of money - then that stretches those furlough days we just talked about longer."

Financial woes resulting from decisions made by the previous administration, aggravated by the economic downtown, are cited as reasons for the current financial difficulties.

"Our tax digest continues to decrease and state revenues to local school systems, not just us, continue to decrease, and I think all that's a result of the economy," Powers said. "The economy hasn't helped, but we are doing this in response to our own difficulties that we've had here within the system during the previous administration. It's probably been brewing for about three years. It's just that we didn't know it was brewing. The public and a lot of us internally, this time last year, didn't have any clue that this was where we were headed in a year's time."

Dorsey and Powers said the system has 313 certified employees and 258 classified employees, for a total of 571, as of Monday.

Anything mentioned in Dorsey's and Powers' plan is subject to change.

"Everything is proposed," Powers said. "The board will decide whether they want to follow through with this plan or not tonight at the meeting. Then the process will just be put in place - it won't be a final decision tonight because there have to be hearings and things like that."

The board meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. today at the Stephens County School System administrative offices on Mize Road.

"The board will hear the plan," Powers said. "They will vote to initiate the plan or not. Once the plan's initiated then we start to really begin working on fine tuning details, we continue to investigate it, we have the public hearings, we have an opportunity for public input . Once all that's through, then the board will have to come back and act on whether this is the plan they're going to execute or not."