Local schools at or near 65 percent mandate

Published 10:48 pm Wednesday, April 5, 2006

All local school systems say they have reached or are nearly in compliance with Gov. Sonny Perdue’s “Classrooms First” initiative that was signed into law on Wednesday.

The law requires local school systems, by 2008, to spend at least 65 percent of all education funds specifically on classroom expenses.

George Smalley, director of personnel for Whitfield County Schools, said the county system currently spends between 63-66 percent of its funds in the classroom, depending on the criteria used to determine classroom spending.

“To be in line with this (law), you have to exclude costs for principals, counselors, media center staff, transportation, gas and utilities,” Smalley said. “That makes us think we need to be working toward next year’s budget for that 65/35 split.”

Deana Farmer, director of community relations for Dalton Public Schools, said that system has projected it will meet the 65 percent rule this fiscal year.

In 2003 and 2004, Dalton city schools spent 63 percent of their budgets directly in the classroom vs. 9 percent on administration. The central office and other administrators tightened their belts to become 8 percent of total spending in 2005.

“It is important to note that (the law) is more than two categories of expenses — it’s not just direct classroom or administration,” Farmer said. “‘Direct instruction’ (also) leaves out school district expenses such as technology; school nurses — not all school districts have them; teacher training — new state standards are coming online; and all administrators, (including) school principals and assistant principals.”

Murray County Schools does not expect to have any trouble meeting the new guidelines. Earlier this year, Murray County Schools topped the list of 180 school systems in a state report that measured the percentage of money spent on “direct instruction.”

Based on the formula used in that report, Murray County spends almost $34.1 million of its $45.4 million budget on classrooms, or roughly 75 percent.

“Murray County spends more on direct instruction than anybody else in the state,” said Dean Donehoo, director of administrative services. “We’ll have no problem meeting the new requirement.”

Opponents of the law say it takes away from local control of school funds.

In addition to other state mandates to reduce class sizes and increase teacher pay — some of the cost of which comes from local dollars — Whitfield County Schools plans to open two new schools this fall.

To meet the added overhead, superintendent Katie Brochu has determined Whitfield County Schools will need to cut approximately $1.1 million in the next fiscal year to live within the current tax rate. Smalley said Brochu will be looking at all aspects of operations to make those cuts.

“We have to be better stewards of our monies. The board thinks we need to be more fiscally responsible and not raise millage rates. Since the governor is proposing we spend at least 65 percent of state funding in the classroom, we have to look elsewhere,” Smalley said. “We’re paying tremendously for fuel and electricity costs, but we can’t cut the utilities off. We can’t stop purchasing new buses or keep them from running on gas. We have to look in central operations and all aspects of our schools.”