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March 9, 2010

Dalton schools may face up to $8 million in cuts

Rachel Brown Dalton Daily Citizen

DALTON — Dalton Public Schools may have to cut up to $8 million from its budget by July 2011 or risk running out of money, Superintendent Jim Hawkins told school board members Monday.

Hawkins said the $6 million he said in February would have to be cut over the next two years from the school system’s budget might actually be as high as $8 million. Hawkins said he is planning for the higher number after learning budget projections coming from the governor’s office were based on a best-case revenue scenario.

The district has a budget of $59 million.

The superintendent said he plans to continue meeting with principals and key leaders weekly on possible ways to cut the budget, including eliminating expenses state and federal regulations don’t require, but he said it’s too early to say exactly what will be cut.

Hawkins has said about $2 million of the original $6 million in expected cuts could come from eliminating positions. Preserving employment is still a high priority, he said, and leaders want to ensure they don’t pare down staff so much that it’s difficult to rebuild programs once the economy rebounds.

If school officials do nothing with the expected revenue losses, they’ll have no money at all by July 2011, said finance director Carol Shanahan, and that means the district would have to borrow money just to make payroll while waiting for tax collections to come in. They would face a deficit the following year.

Hawkins said he wants to give board members a finalized budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 by the end of May, but officials haven’t said how much they hope to cut in 2010-2011 nor how much will wait until 2011-2012.

The budget woes are the result of several years of state funding cuts, also known as austerity cuts, as well as a decline in local tax revenue because of the sagging economy, officials said. Since 2003, austerity cuts to Dalton Public Schools have totaled $17 million, officials said.

“We didn’t start having cuts in public education just since the recession,” Hawkins said. “It started in 2003.”

School board chairman Steve Williams said there are no plans at this point to raise taxes.

“We haven’t discussed this,” he said. “I expect it would be a last resort.”

Board member Mark Orr said the school system was able to make more than $5 million in cuts last year through a process Hawkins lead in which he consulted with employees at every level on the best ways to cut without eliminating jobs or hurting the classroom.

“We’re in way better shape than a lot of districts,” Orr said.

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