Cobb may cut teachers, calendar

Tentative budget cuts 400 positions. Class sizes would go up 2; number of school days down 5.

When students in Cobb County return in August they will have fewer school days and more crowded classrooms if the tentative budget approved Thursday becomes final.

The board voted 6-1 for an $842 million general fund budget for the 2012-13 school year. That’s down $10 million from the current year’s spending, but officials still didn’t cut enough to match revenue. Superintendent Michael Hinojosa proposed plugging a $21 million deficit with reserves.

Officials said the struggling real estate market’s impact on property taxes and cuts in state subsidies are responsible for the decline in spending.

If the tentative budget becomes final, there will be about 400 fewer instructional personnel (350 of them teachers), and maximum class sizes will rise by two students across all grades. The school year will be missing five days when teachers will be furloughed.

The remaining teachers will have less help, with hours for paraprofession- als cut nearly in half. Step increases for teachers will be cut in half.

“It’s been a long journey, a very unpleasant journey for all of us,” Hinojosa said.

The budget can still change. It doesn’t become final until a vote scheduled for May 17. Board member David Banks cast the dissenting vote. He wants officials to cut less and use more reserves.

Some of his colleagues wanted to pull back from other cuts, expressing concern, for instance, with the five furlough days.

But they were also looking down the road to an even bleaker 201314 school year. Revenue isn’t expected to grow by then, yet costs for things such as medical care are expected to continue rising. So the school system will have to pull yet more money out of reserves to maintain spending levels — money it doesn’t have.

Revenue is expected to rise slightly next year, up $3 million to nearly $821 million. That’s coming after a steep drop between the current year and the preceding 2010-11 fiscal year, when the school system took in $885 million and spent $824 million. The current year budget plugged a $34 million deficit with reserves.

“We don’t have a sustainable budget,” board member Alison Bartlett said. “It’s a horrifying place to be because I don’t see revenues increasing for the next five years.”