by Kevin Cummings, Messenger Staff Writer
Franklin County Schools will have a hard time opening for the 2015–16 school year without additional county funding, said Kevin Caroland, chairman of the Franklin County School Board, at the board’s July 14 meeting.
“We’re headed for disaster,” he said. “We can hang our hat and say we hope they come through and fund it, but nobody’s ever seen it on this board.” Officials said the county has not increased school system funding in at least 10 years.
The board approved a budget at its July meeting without an increase in revenue after the county finance committee rejected a proposed budget with a 7-cent property tax increase.
Most Franklin County commissioners oppose a tax increase. Sue Hill, a county commissioner and member of the finance committee, said that school officials can make deeper cuts, including eliminating jobs in the central office.
“I’m not for a tax increase right now,” she said. “Their fund balance can carry them right now. You have to take into account senior citizens living on social security who can’t afford to pay high taxes. I’m 100 percent for education, but there are things that can be cut.”
School board members said they have made many cuts already.
“I think we’ve bent over backwards and tried to do everything we can do to be good stewards of the money,” said board member Chris Guess. “The cuts that we do from here on out will be detrimental to students, and they will be detrimental to teachers.”
“In this budget [that Hill says] we can cut, you don’t have to run schools buses, you don’t have to do this or that, but at what cost do you do that? I’ve gone about as far as I’m willing to go,” Guess said.
The school system has a $42.4 million budget for 2014–15, of which the state requires at least 3 percent, or almost $1.3 million, be kept in a fund balance for unexpected expenses.
The school system is spending about $1.8 million from the fund balance this year and officials said if there are no new expenses, there will only be around $650,000 in the fund balance going into 2015–16, far less than the state’s required minimum of 3 percent.
Chris McDonough, Sewanee’s school board representative, said after the meeting that even if the board cuts teacher’s paid insurance from 100 percent to 90 percent and changes Franklin County High School’s class schedule to reduce the number of teachers needed, there will not be enough money to open school in 2015.
“Last year, I talked to a school board chair from another county where they fought their commission and refused to open school without adequate funding—he said at the end of the day, it was a mistake. The job of the board is to run the schools, even with the increasingly paltry amount the commission gives us,” McDonough said. “Given all that, I could not in good conscience vote for the budget.”
The school board approved the budget on Monday by a 6-1 margin with Caroland voting “no” and McDonough abstaining.
In other business at the school board:
The board voted 6-2 to not sell 1,000 acres at the site of the former Franklin County High School for two years in the hopes that the state will fund a college of applied technology on the site. Guess and board member Mike Holmes voted against the measure.
McDonough, Guess and Holmes questioned the effectiveness of an elementary school reading program implemented last school year. Rebecca Sharber, director of schools, said TCAP test results, which are currently embargoed by the state, do not reflect an increase in reading and language arts scores. Sharber said changes will give teachers more flexibility in the reading program and a math program.
McDonough said when TCAP scores are released, officials should review the reading program.
The board voted unanimously to reverse a previous decision and allow 13 Huntland-area students to ride the bus to Broadview Elementary, South Middle or Franklin County High School for two more years.
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