State cuts lead to school employee furlough plan

GAINESVILLE - Gainesville School Superintendent Dr. Merrianne Dyer told board members Monday night at their first work session of 2009 she has an expense cutting plan that includes unpaid employee furloughs but she hopes she won't have to use it.

The system remains $130,000 short of offsetting an expected $524,000 state education cut; Dr. Dyer said the system can cover that too but if not, employees can expect an unpaid day off.

"Should we not meet those savings we'd go to a second tier of reductions; we do not expect to have to move to we want to have a plan in place," Dyer said. "The first of those items would be furloughing 12 month certified employees one day."

Dr. Dyer said that would yield about $30,000 but further state cuts would mean a much broader furlough.

"We would look at a one day furlough for all employees which would result in roughly $200,000," she added.

Dyer told the Board savings so far include $280,000 in personnel cuts, $16,666, (the difference between her Superintendent's and principal's pay), plus $50,000 from school supply accounts, $20,000 from public relations materials and $27,000 from transportation.

TUITION INCREASE PROPOSED

School Board members expect to vote January 20th on how much more students living outside the city have to pay to implement tuition increases.

Chairman David Syfan said he wanted to raise tuition enough to be even with the average city property tax hike, about $180 more for two children.

"It depends on the value of your house but I figure most people in town had a tax increase anywhere from $150 to $225, so it's sort of splitting that range," Syfan said.

Syfan proposed a $65 tuition fee per month for nine months for the first child and $55 dollars for each additional child.

Superintendent Dyer recommended a 12 percent tuition hike, or $54 a month per child, effective next school year.

Board members did agree that system employees' students living outside Gainesville could attend school would continue to attend tuition free.

Enota Elementary School parent Amanda Anderson who lives in Habersham County asked if tuition could be divided into four payments for her two children.

COMPUTER TECH SUPPORT

Superintendent Dyer supported System Technical Director Keith Palmer's recommendation to provide computer tech support to every school without hiring any new personnel and training people already employed.

"Because we have a high level of instructional technology, having a technology person in each school is vital throughout the day," Dr. Dyer said.

DAY CARE IN THE BLACK

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Shirley Whitaker told the Board privatizing day care for system employees would not work nearly as well as increasing the number of full time children.

"One thing we have done is allow people to drop in, part time employees, to only pay for two or three days, but enrolled children pay for the entire week," Dr. Dyer said. "We're going to have to get our practices in line with other day cares; we need more kids paying full time."

BOARD OFFICERS RE-ELECTED

Board members re-elected David Syfan as chairman, with Kelvin Simmons Vice Chairman and Sammy Smith as Treasurer for another year; there were no changes in meeting schedules, with the first Monday of the month at 5 p.m. set for work sessions and the third Monday at 7 p.m. for regular meetings with exceptions for holidays.

This month's regular meeting was moved to Tuesday January 20th because Monday January 19th is the Dr. Martin Luther King holiday.

MOMENT OF SILENCE

The Board observed a moment of silence at the beginning of Monday's work session for Day Care Director Teresa Ann Williams, 41, of Gainesville who died Thursday, January 1st at Northeast Georgia Medical Center following a sudden illness.