SCCPSS: Teachers Protest Possibility of More Furloughs

We all know that times are tough when it comes to money, whether at home or at work.

The SCCPSS school district has to borrow $20 million because there isn't enough money to pay the bills or salaries for much of November and December. They have to borrow the money because of changes in state funding and a delay in property tax collections because the assessment process changed. The money will be repaid by december 31st.

Georgia's revenue also declined by 14.2 % from the first quarter of the fiscal year last year. (July 1st-September 30th)

On Monday, teachers and staff members of Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools received an email from Superintendent Thomas Lockamy saying the governor has ordered further cuts.

Dr. Lockamy says "I simply don't know if additional reductions to employee work schedules will be required…my best advice is to be extremely cautious in your personal budget decisions.”

The email says if the state's revenue continues to decline, the operating budget could be out of balance by as much as $1 billion. More money is needed to cover flood relief, (matching FEMA flood relief payments) H1N1 costs and growing enrollment in public colleges and schools.

The email to teachers and staff says they should expect further reductions. Lockamy says he thinks they'll have less money next year but that he doesn't expect a final state budget until the end of February.

The words of caution have employees saying no more furloughs; make cuts somewhere else.

"Children need to learn. Teachers need to teach, trim the top, not the top not the teachers," those were the words shouted in front of the district’s school board offices at 208 Bull Street Wednesday morning.

It’s a message from protesters; teachers, PTA members and children.

Lynne Cross has been a teacher in Georgia for 26 years. Her paycheck went down, but insurance and other expenses are still going up so it's tough to make ends meet.

"We're expected to do at least what we did before, even know we have less time to do it. We expect the students to meet the standards and that takes a lot of planning so everyone's working extra hours, coming to work early, working late, still trying to be the best teachers we can but we're not getting compensated at all and I think that's what everyone is so upset about,” explains Lynne Cross, a 7th grade math teacher at Southwest Middle School.

"Education is so vital to the success of an economy and I don't have to tell anyone how bad things are economically in Savannah, Chatham County, Georgia and the entire world. It makes no sense at all that the teachers are not being supported to spend more time in school as opposed to less time in school,” says Mariella Orellana, chair of the International Committee for Chatham County’s PTA.

One of the biggest frustrations the protesters have is that the lights are on and that there are people inside of the school board offices at 208 Bull Street. The school board meeting is also being held on its regularly scheduled day when everyone was supposed to be furloughed.

"Somebody is not telling the truth here. We believe there's money, we just don't know where the money is but we have somebody working on that even as we speak now to find out where the money is. And once we find out where the money is, you will know because we know that WSAV is on our side," explains Alfreda Goldwire, president of the Savannah Federation of Teachers, Paraprofessionals and School Related Personnel.

The 3 furlough days were planned on days when students were not scheduled to go to class. Dr. Lockamy tells me he hopes future cuts won't affect students learning.

"I'm hopeful that that doesn't come to be, but we are prepared if it does that we can compress the curriculum so that we do actually in fact give that child that quality education and take out some of the fluff,"

Lockamy tells me that at least one district in Georgia has gone to a four day work week with extended days, while another has gone to a 170 day work year instead of 190 days. He just hopes it doesn't come to that.