A summary of a proposed $1.059 billion fiscal year 2019 Cobb schools budget was presented to the Cobb Board of Education on Thursday, and it reflects a slight increase from the present fiscal year 2018 budget of $1.023 billion.
The FY 2019 proposal includes a 1.1-percent bonus for annual employees, district police officers and high school secretaries, also known as “238-day” employees. There are no pay raises included for any Cobb County School District employees.
At a board work session Thursday, district officials laid out a budget plan that doesn’t raise property taxes, but uses $7.8 million in reserve funding to pay for the bonuses.
On a more long-term level, the budget forecast for the 112,000-student district, the second-largest in Georgia, is a bit grim.
Superintendent Chris Ragsdale said that “revenue has not changed,” and that “while we always try to guard against crying wolf,” the district’s tight fiscal situation does not appear to be changing any time soon.
“We have cut until we are at the bone,” Ragsdale said. “We have nothing left to cut.”
The one-page budget presentation (below, or click for PDF version here) also includes $12 million in salary step increases for eligible employees and an increase in the employer contribution to the state teacher retirement system from 16.81 percent to 20.9 percent, or a total of $25 million more.
Of that amount, the state is contributing $16 million, according to Cobb schools chief financial officer Brad Johnson.
He added that state austerity cuts for FY 2019 will take another $10 million in funding away from Cobb. The district also will have to contribute $155 million in state “fair share” funding that is spread around other school districts in Georgia, up from the present $145 million.
Johnson also said that flat student enrollment growth figures in Cobb also figure to reduce the funding the district receives from the state.
This is all in spite of Cobb coming off a record tax digest in 2017, and a net estimated digest growth of six percent for this year that would yield an additional $24 million in school revenues.
The current Cobb school millage rate is 18.9 mills, and is capped at 20 mills. Residential property owners in Cobb age 62 and over are eligible to apply for an exemption from paying school taxes, which the district estimates costs around $100 million annually.
“We have very little additional state revenue coming in next year,” Johnson told the board members. “We have a revenue problem. We have a problem with state revenue.”
The current FY 2018 budget includes the use of $18 million in reserve funds to purchase property adjoining the school district’s Marietta headquarters ($4.2 million) and $5.6 million for school building additions and modifications in the south Cobb area.
Ragsdale said the district is still down around 900 teaching positions. Estimating that the average teacher cost is $90,000 a year, he said there’s “no way we can even attempt to think about” how to close that gap.
The proposed budget includes a total of six new instructional positions across the district, at a cost of $542,000.
Saying that revenue sources aren’t just “tapped out,” but that “we are taking on water,” Ragsdale said that “it’s really a shame that we cannot do anything more with our budget as it is now. It is what it is.”
Board member David Banks of East Cobb, who represents the Pope and Lassiter districts, admitted during the presentation that “we’re in a danger zone.”
Later on Thursday, Connie Jackson of the Cobb County Association of Educators said the budget “isn’t pretty, it’s not what we were hoping for” and urged board members to include pay raises.
“We need a raise, and we need it this year,” she said, referring to information provided by school officials that Cobb is ninth out of 12 metro Atlanta school districts in recruiting new teachers.
She said “we are slipping” and fears Cobb will slide in other indicators for paying and retaining teachers and school administrators.
There hasn’t been a millage rate increase for Cobb schools in 10 years, Jackson said, and while no one wants a tax increase, boosting the millage rate to the full 20 mills would cost homeowners an additional $80 a year on a home valued at $200,000 and would yield a 2.5 pay raise.
“That’s not much to ask for . . . for a living wage,” she said.
Johnson said more detailed budget information will be available soon, and will be posted on the district’s website as well.
The school board will hold a public hearing on the budget on April 19 at 6:30 p.m., shortly before tentative approval.
Formal adoption is scheduled for May 17, following a second public hearing at 12:30 p.m. The Cobb schools budget goes into effect on July 1, and the final tax digest figures are determined later in July.
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