Stephens Co. BOE To Consider Proposal to Close Eastanollee Elementary Tonight

The Stephens County Board of Education will consider a proposal from School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey tonight to begin the process of putting together a budget reduction plan for next fiscal year that would result in a reduction in force and the closing of Eastanollee Elementary School.

Tonight’s Stephens County Board of Education meeting begins at 5:30 p.m. at the Stephens County School System Administrative Offices on Mize Road.

Dorsey met with staff in the system Monday about the proposal that is being put forth.

He said the proposal being put forth involves reducing the budget next fiscal year by re-structuring the entire system’s lower grades and closing Eastanollee Elementary School.

“We began to look and we realized we could put Pre-K and Kindergarten at Big A, then we could put first and second grade at Liberty, third and fourth grade at Toccoa, have a Fifth Grade Academy at the Middle School in the downstairs part, have sixth, seventh, and eighth grades in the upstairs, keep the high school as it is structured,” said Dorsey. “We then would be able to close our largest elementary school, which is Eastanollee. That would then afford us a consolidation of about $2 million worth of savings a year.”

That $2 million would go towards the $2.6 million he said in February needed to be cut from the school system’s budget in order to push back the need to borrow money for operations past July in calendar year 2016 and begin eliminating the system’s dependency on using Tax Anticipation Notes to operate.

Dorsey said this proposal and these cuts would also help the school system work more quickly towards restoring calendar reduction days that have been implemented in the budget cuts.

“If we were able to do that (implement the proposal), we would then be able to go in and have one more year of 16 days out (for calendar reduction),” said Dorsey. “We think with all things being equal, if we did not have any other major findings or catastrophes, the next year we would be able to drop to 10 (calendar reduction days), the following (year) five, and then back to zero.”

He said the system also looked at cutting about $1.5 million in staff and keeping the same school structure as an alternative to the proposal being put forth.

“We just end up losing so much support for the buildings,” said Dorsey. “We were worried about security, services to our kids, programs.”

Dorsey said the proposal to cut staff at each school would have also required the school system to maintain a level of 16 calendar reduction days for a longer period of time.

Also, Dorsey said closing a school without re-structuring as is proposed is not a viable option.

According to Dorsey, the proposal being put forth would result in a reduction in force of about 25 total positions, not counting ones lost to attrition that would just not be re-filled, as of the end of this school year if the final plan is approved.

Dorsey said staff looked at all of the elementary schools and felt Eastanollee was the most viable candidate.

He said he does not feel the plan is a problem for the school system from a busing perspective.

“The transportation hub is at the high school so we bring every bus back in and we send every bus out from that location,” said Dorsey. “So we are already coming back in. We anticipate in those Gumlog areas running more of our single routes. That time is reduced coming back in. Once again, we are talking about a six-mile change roughly between those two schools. That is not a lot of extra travel time as far as once that bus is moving. It is the stops that take the route time. Once they are on the highway, it is not a significant change no matter what school you are going to.”

Looking at other elementary schools like Liberty for example, Dorsey said that Liberty Elementary has the newest equipment of the elementary schools and is the most structurally sound as far as mechanics and what it costs to operate the school.

Dorsey said the school system is also looking at cuts in other areas. For example, this proposal would cut two administrative positions through attrition and Stephens County High School Athletic Director Frank Barden will speak at tonight’s Board meeting about proposed reductions in the athletic budget.

Dorsey said the proposal is a very tough one, but one he feels is the best and most viable option that they have come up with to this point.

“What we are trying to make sure we do not do is hurt the instructional programs we offer to our kids,” said Dorsey. “We think we have come up with something that is the best of the worst situation that none of us wanted to be in. I do not think the Board wanted to or has any desire to close a school.”

Dorsey emphasized this is just the beginning of the process.

“Nothing is finalized,” said Dorsey. “We know we have to go through at least two public hearings. We are still analyzing this. But at some point, we have to make it public so we can comprehensively analyze it.”

Dorsey said if the Board of Education votes to allow staff to continue moving forward with this proposal, public hearings would be scheduled and staff would continue to work on the plan.

He said he would want to have a final plan ready for possible adoption and implementation in the next month or two.