Stephens Co. BOE Moving Forward With Budget Reduction Plan Process; Possible School Re-structuring

The Stephens County Board of Education votes to move forward and continue looking at a budget reduction plan that would possibly cut jobs and could close Eastanollee Elementary School.

Tuesday, the Stephens County Board of Education voted unanimously to authorize School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey to initiate the Fiscal Year 2016 budget reduction plan, including development of a reduction in force plan, initiating the possible closing of Eastanollee Elementary School, and considering re-structuring the Pre-K through fifth grade levels.

The current proposal put forth includes closing Eastanollee Elementary and moving all Pre-K and Kindergarten students to Big A Elementary, 1st and 2nd grade to Liberty Elementary, and 3rd and 4th grades to Toccoa Elementary.

The plan would also include moving fifth grade to the middle school in a separate Fifth Grade Academy.

Hundreds of people turned out to Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting to voice their opinions on the matter.

Parent Shelly Arnold said it is absolutely horrifying to consider shutting down Eastanollee, citing its high test scores.

“I believe we should shut one of these schools down that has lower test scores,” said Arnold. “We should not have three schools in the system that are in town and shut the one down that is out of town.”

She suggested shutting down one of the schools in town and expanding the district lines a little bit.

“Then, all of those students that are out there next to the Franklin County line do not have to drive and get up at 5 o’clock in the morning just to be at school,” said Arnold.

Dorsey said Eastanollee was proposed for several reasons.

“It is our largest elementary school and if you close that, it involves us saving the most money because it is the biggest one for us to operate,” said Dorsey, who added the other reason involves transportation.

“All of our buses come into town and all of them leave from the center of our town,” said Dorsey. “We house all of them at the high school. That is where our transportation department is.”

Big A and Liberty Elementary schools are both located near the high school.

Meanwhile, other parents also expressed concerns about the idea of grouping grades in the schools rather than having all grade levels in each school.

Justin Minchew said he is concerned about a lack of stability for younger students.

“If they are switching schools every two years, they have to learn a new building, new administration, new teachers,” said Minchew.

Dorsey said it would not be possible to close a school if each school had each grade.

Also, he said grouping the schools allows more savings especially at the Pre-K and Kindergarten level at Big A if the plan were approved.

“It can operate at a much lower financial footprint then if we had three schools just like the other two,” said Dorsey of Big A under the proposal. “They require additional resources. You have to have counselors in place. You have to have P.E. in place. You have to have all these things, where with Pre-K, you do not.”

Meanwhile, parent Chastity Pless said she is opposed to moving fifth grade to the Middle School.

“I do not see that they are ready,” said Pless.

Dorsey said the Fifth Grade Academy would be located downstairs in the Middle School and would be separate and treated differently.

“It will have a different school code, it will have a different school number, it will have a different principal,” said Dorsey.

He added the Fifth Grade Academy principal would report to the Middle School Principal.

Pless also pointed to the closing of a school in Gilmer County while Dorsey was superintendent there in 2011, where a critic told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that she had never seen a school closed so quickly and had not seen where it had saved the Gilmer school system any money.

Other speakers also called on the school board to make cuts elsewhere first, pointing to administration and athletics.

Athletic Director Frank Barden said that his department will make some cuts next year.

“We went through some reduction in staff and adjustments in supplements,” said Barden. “We feel like we can save you $16,000 to $20,000 this upcoming year.”

The plan, which includes other cuts, would result in a loss of about 40 positions.

However, some of the people would then move to other positions, resulting in a potential proposed reduction in force of 25.5 positions.

Dorsey said the total plan would save the school system an estimated $1.9 million a year and could allow the school system to potentially eliminate all calendar reduction days by the 2018-2019 school year.

He said looking at cuts that did involve a total of $1.5 million where each school would stay open would mean keeping 16 calendar reduction days in place for the next three to four years, before even beginning to reduce that.

According to Dorsey, the school system needs the cuts to get back to a place of not borrowing money prior to the start of a fiscal year and beginning to get the school system to a place where it was no longer depending on borrowing Tax Anticipation Notes, or TAN’s, to forward fund school system operations.

Dorsey said there is the option of doing nothing, but that would create long term concerns.

“We stay in a reduction of school days for an extended period of time, years upon years, and then we still have to worry if we will have enough (money) because we are still just eking by pushing these TAN’s down,” said Dorsey.

If nothing is done, Dorsey said the system would remain in a state of “financial despair.”

Board of Education Chair Tony Crunkleton said the Board appreciates all of the comments and adds that the Board wants to leave no stone unturned in trying to save as much money as possible.

Crunkleton said something has to be done.

“The worst thing we can do is to do nothing,” said Crunkleton. “We are determined that we are not going to do nothing. We have to solve this.”

A number of people expressed frustration following the vote, wanting more details of how the plan exactly would work.

Dorsey emphasized, however, that Tuesday’s vote was not a final vote.

“This is a beginning process,” said Dorsey. “I know that a lot of times people want us to be transparent and then have all of the answers at an identical moment. What we are really doing is starting today.”

There will now be public hearings surrounding the possible closing of Eastanollee Elementary and Dorsey says the plan could change based on input from the community and staff.

He said he would like to have all of the public hearings done in the next month and bring a final plan back to the school board for a final vote in the next 30 to 40 days.