The DeKalb County Board of Education voted 4-1 last week to request that the county commission adopt a school budget totaling $20,576,347 for 2014-15 school year. Spending for schools will remain the same as last year’s expenditures at the request of the county budget committee.
The proposed spending plan will be the third presented to the budget committee.
The original spending plan was rejected by the budget committee because it was $273,000 out of balance and members said it would have required a 6-7 cent property tax increase. The school board cut the deficit down to $29,285 on the second attempt, but that proposal was rejected as well.
The committe asked that spending be cut by $331,469, so that expenditures in this year’s budget remain at thesame level as last year. The school board had originally asked to spend $20,907,816.
Members of the county budget committee are Wayne Cantrell, Rick Cantrell,  Larry Summers, Jerry Scott, Marshall Ferrell and alternate Jerry Adcock. All members except Ferrell voted to reject the proposed budget. Ferrell said he didn’t feel that he had studied the plan long enough to vote against it. Summers was absent.
The budget committee's action means that total spending for schools is to remain at $20,576,347 for 2014-15.
The school board had originally asked to spend $20,907,816, with total revenues of $19,233,260. The board requested that a $1,674,556 in available technology and BEP cash reserves and unassigned monies from the fund balance be budgeted to meet the deficit, almost the equivalent of a 39-cents property tax rate hike, if it had to be funded that way.
While the school system ended last year  around $300,000 in the black, officials are estimating an approximate $500,000 shortfall this year. Total local revenues for schools will be $4,037,739 this year, a $25,649 increase. The remainder of school funding comes from state and federal sources
No current employees will be eliminated by the trimmed budget, but proposed academic coaches have been removed fromthe plan.Supplements for new athletic coaching remain.
The new athletic coaching supplement positions, totaling $20,333, had been cut,  but 6th District board member Doug Stephens proposed an amendment to fund the positions by moving money $18,000 from the natural gas line item and $2,300 from transportation .
Stephens said that since natural gas expenditures in the last few years have been much lower than budgeted, he felt the cuts were safe.
“I think there is a surplus there. The previous two years that are shown, we budgeted more than what was shown. We've reduced it  by $10,000, but I think there is still some money there.We're cutting it by $10,000 off the $175,000 that is proposed. But we spent $127,000. We project to spend around $135,000, so there is some extra money in there.” he said.
The board voted 4-3 to transfer the funds and return the coaching supplements to the budget. Stephens, Billy Miller, Kenny Rhody, and W.J. (Dub) Evins, III voted in favor. John David Foutch, Charles Robinson, and Chairman Johnny Lattimore voted against the amendment.
The $20,330 budgeted for new coaching positions include two DCHS assistant soccer coaches, one for the girls team and one for the boys team: $5,570, two assistant DMS soccer coaches: $2,790, a DMS assistant basketball coach: $1,395, a DMS/DWSWest cross country track coach Two DCHS cross country track coaches: $5,000, an assistant DWS basketball coach: $1,395, an assistant DWS baseball coach: $1,395 and an assistant high school football coach: $2,785.
An Athletic Director ($5,000) and a DWS track coach ($2,500) were cut from the budget, and the DMSand DWS programs were merged.
First district member Foutch explained his vote by saying that he felt academic coaches were more sorely needed.
“I'd like to see that academic coach in this budget,” he said. “That's the reason I'm voting no on this. I believe we could research this and find that $50,000 for that academic coach. I think it is something that would help our schools.”
“I vote no, not because I'm against sports or adding the positions, but we've got a very, very tight budget and it's just going to get tighter and tighter if we don't have additional tax dollars coming in,” Lattimore said. “We may be coming back next year, whoever is on this board, and cutting these positions, as well as other positions, if something doesn't change that we have additional revenues. We may have these assistants today, but we may not have them a year from today. So my vote is no.”
“I'd like to say that the next time that we do something pertaining to a budget and adding something is going to be with a focus on the academic programs that we have in our schools,” said Director of Schools Mark Willoughby. “Our kids in our athletic programs and extracurricular activities do a good job, but Tennessee needs to do a better job day in and day out of preparing our children to be college and career ready. That starts even before they get to school but the foundation is laid by the third grade.”.
The proposed plan still includes funding for a new second-grade teacher, an english teacher, a chemistry teacher, and a part time english as a second language (ESL) teacher at DCHS.
Funding is included for a half-time speech pathologist; a new full-time technology position and a $4,000 pay raise for the transportation director, bringing that salary up to $36,710.