SCCPSS: Superintendent Letter To Employees About Budget Grim

Today is a teacher furlough day for Savannah-Chatham County Schools and members of the various teacher organizations, parents and children are protesting those unpaid days off.

The school board will meet today at 1:00 for their informal meeting at the Whitney Complex off of President Street. The regular meeting will begin at 3. Members of the Savannah Federation of Teachers, Paraprofessionals and School Related Personnel as well as other organizations will again be protesting at 3 p.m.

This all comes just two days after teachers received this email from Dr. Thomas Lockamy, Superintendent:

In response to employee concerns related to what the future holds for our school district financially and how it may impact each of us, I would like to share with you what we may be facing in future months. Our nation and our state are experiencing extremely tough economic times. Regrettably, public school systems like ours are not immune to state funding reductions and must quickly react to any downward adjustment in state revenue.

Georgia’s revenue collections have been declining for the last nine months.
For the first quarter of this fiscal year (July 1st – September 30th), the State’s revenues declined 14.2 percent from the previous year. In response to these continued revenue declines, Governor Perdue ordered funding for school districts to be further reduced. These additional funding reductions necessitated the modified work schedules that were implemented by the vast majority of school districts in August.

If Georgia’s revenue collections continue to decline, some experts project that the State’s current operating budget will be out of balance by as much as $1.0 billion, on top of the cuts already taken this year. Also, due to recent flooding in the western part of our state, Georgia must also provide matching funds for FEMA flood relief payments that were not included in the State’s original budget. Money must also be found to assist with the additional costs of the H1N1 virus and vaccinations, as well as to fund enrollment growth in public colleges and schools.

All of this points to a very challenging legislative session when the General Assembly reconvenes in January. As Georgia’s lawmakers develop the amended budget for the current year, further funding reductions to school districts should be expected. Unless Georgia’s revenue picture rebounds dramatically in the coming weeks, I would anticipate next year’s State funding of public education may be even less than this year’s.

At this juncture, I simply don’t know if additional reductions to employee work schedules will be required. I do not expect the legislature to finalize the amended budget for this year until late February. My best advice is to be extremely cautious in your personal budget decisions. You have my promise that I will do everything I can, in concert with the School Board, to minimize the impact of any additional State funding reductions on our valued employees.

Thomas B. Lockamy, Jr. Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools.

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