After a tense few weeks of budget discussion, the DeKalb County Board of Education adopted the 2011-12 consolidated budget for schools Thursday evening.
The board unanimously voted to authorize the plan as approved by the county commission on Monday night, and also voted to authorize funding from the state basic education reserve account (BEP) for three new assistant principal positions.
All members were present except for First district member John David Foutch.
The budget, which will include a five-cent tax increase to go toward school funding, includes a 1.6 percent local increase to match the state's 1.6 percent contribution toward pay raises for teachers, and a 3.2 percent increase in pay for non-certified personnel.
The consolidated budget required some  tough decisions be made, as the adopted plan is much tighter than the original plan that the board presented to the budget committee.
Previously proposed positions not funded under the 2011-12 plan include  the addition of another math teacher at DeKalb County High School, an assistant band teacher, and assistant soccer coaches.
Director of Schools Mark Willoughby told the assembly that the positions would also have to be funded from the school system's BEP account, and that dipping so deeply into the reserve account could deplete it entirely.
"When we approve this consolidated budget we will be doing basically the same thing that we have done in the past,” Willoughby said. “Last year we used $640,000 of our BEP reserve funds. We ended the year $780,000 (in the black). This year, if we did employ everyone we had on the list that we sent to the county commission on the second go around, we would be using $990,521 out of BEP reserves. It is our hope that we do not use all of our reserves." Willoughby concluded.
The board did approve funding for three assistant principal positions, voting for a ten-month, two-week contract for one assistant each at DeKalb West, Smithville Elementary, and at Northside Elementary.
Willoughby said that the new assistant principal positions are necessary to help perform state required teacher evaluations.
“It is my thought that we cannot complete the requirements that are made  by the state department of education without having these three assistant principals,” Willouhgby told those present at the meeting. “ These assistant principals will be at DeKalb West, Smithville Elementary, and Northside Elementary. One person has expressed an interest, who is already an assistant principal at one of our secondary schools, in applying at one of our elementary schools. If that goes through, that may be sort of a flip-flop, and we would be filling that secondary position. It wouldn't be any more money. We're still just talking about three new positions at $225,000.”
The budget includes $225,000 to fund these positions.
“What we did to come up with that $225,000 figure,” Willoughby continued, “we took the assistant principals that we have. We took the highest paid assistant principal and the number of years that this person has and multiplied that times three. We're going to save some money, because more than likely, when we hire a teacher to be an assistant principal, the person that we're hiring will not be getting paid to teach,” he continued.
Willoughy said that the ten-week, two-month contracts will save the system money as well.
“What I want to do with the three assistant principals, all of our present assistant principals are paid on eleven months,” Willoughby said. “Our new assistant principals would be at ten months and two weeks. So therefore, we would be saving two weeks pay there also.
W.J. (Dub) Evins, III, board member from the fifth district, voiced his belief that the system has no option under the new state required evaluation system but to add the assistant principals.
"In regards to the budget, my major concern is, when it comes to a point where the state hands down a mandate that the county commission has to add another cell to the landfill, they have to do it,” Evins said. “When the state tells the board of education that we have three buses we have to retire and put three new buses on the road, we have to do it. The unfortunate part about these assistant principals is, the state says we have to go from evaluating teachers two times in ten years to four times each year which is forty times in ten years, unless you're tenured and then its six times a year in five years so you're going to be evaluated thirty times. The state has said we have to do this but the state didn't say we have to hire assistant principals. They just want us to get the job done. They lay out these guidelines and then drop the ball in our lap. For those reasons, I would like for the board to consider looking into our reserve account to fund these positions. If it comes about next year, that they (the state) are not going to fund it, and we can't afford to fund it, the county commission can't afford to look into it for us, then we may have to re-think the issue and back up. But we need those assistant principals," Evins concluded.
Seventh-district member Johnny Lattimore opined that the board had no other option as well.
" We're not trying to avert the county commission but this is something this board feels we must do because if we don't do the evaluations, we stand in danger of losing $13 million in funding from the state so we don't have any other option in my opinion," Lattimore told the assembly.
Third district member Kenny Rhody moved to add an assistant band teacher position, but the motion failed to receive a second.
Lattimore asserted that although he believes that all the new positions originally sought by the board, including the assistant band teacher, are necessary, the funding is just not in the budget.
"There's no way that I can see that we can fund all these things,” Lattimore said. “If we fund everything that we've discussed in the workshop before this meeting, and then next year we have to go back to the county commission and ask them to pay for these three assistant principal positions, and then we have to go back and ask for $667,000 to replace the job's grant funds, and then ask for whatever other needs that arise, then that's going to be a big tax increase."
"I was a band student,” Rhody answered. “I've watched the band. There's twenty-six new members this year. The numbers are up. There's no band program at the West School. I feel like we've got to get our younger students a feeder program built back that we've lost. We dropped the ball a few years ago when we cut funding for an assistant band director we had. Our band really suffered because of it. The band got down to twenty members. I feel this is very important."
The board then approved $24,000 to fund a new site coordinator position by a 5-1 vote.
Lattimore told the board that he would like to vote in favor of the site coordinator, but did not do so in light of concerns that the position may not be fundable next year.
Fourth district member Billy Miller asked that the funding of new assistant soccer coaches be considered again in the future.
"I don't think right now is the time, but I do think we need to look into it to see what we can do to resolve the situation,” Miller said. “I've had several individuals to come to me personally and want us to look into this and see if there is any kind of way to get them some help or relief. There may not be anything that we can do, but I don't think we should turn a deaf ear and act like we're not doing anything about it."