ewest@calhountimes.com

Governor Sonny Perdue has ordered public school teachers to take three unpaid furlough days this year.

The governor has also called for 3 percent funding cuts for public schools and Medicaid.

Gordon County Schools and Calhoun City Schools were notified Tuesday afternoon.

“We’re planning a furlough as the Governor has requested. There has been little time to formulate a plan. I will meet with principals and department directors in the morning to finalize our plan,” said Gordon County Superin-tendent Bill McCown.

“The cuts to public education have been less than cuts to other state agencies and preserving jobs is a priority of our Board. We have not suffered a reduction-in-force (RIF) or a lay-off. We still have that same priority, to preserve jobs so that we can serve our students,” he said.

“Our School Board was briefed of this announcement during the regular board meeting Tuesday night. I will meet with the System Leadership Team Wednesday to draft a plan for the required furloughs,” said Calhoun City Schools Superintendent Michele Taylor.

“We have creatively handled the shortfall of state and local funds by making reassignments and adjusting the number of work days for several positions already. Our goal has been to preserve as many jobs as possible through retirements and natural attrition,” she stressed.

With teachers coming back to school next week for pre-planning, both systems will be working to finalize a plan for the furloughs immediately.

“There are about 10 days there in pre-planning, post-planning, staff development, teacher work days that we have throughout the year,” Perdue said.

In an earlier press release, Perdue stated that the order for furloughs instead of pay cuts shows that the move was temporary.

The $1.2 billion federal stimulus package received earlier in the year could not save the state from falling reve-nues, with more than $3.5 billion in spending cuts over the last few months.

"We've got to live in the reality of the moment," Perdue said. "These steps are necessary and prudent to make sure we keep our promises to the taxpayers of Georgia," he said earlier.

This is the first state ordered furlough for school systems in more than 25 years according to Angela Palm, Policy director for the Georgia School Boards Association.

"In some way it would seem to have to impact an instructional day," she added.

The furloughs will include administrators, bus drivers, food service employees and other school personnel.

State School Superintendent Kathy Cox said that implementing the cuts would be challenging.

Local school systems continue to balance the budget changes but more cuts may be on the way if Georgia's tax collections continue to fall.