“Right now we are having to play a waiting game,” said board member Eddie Hall.
Last week, Gov. Sonny Perdue ordered all public school teachers in Georgia to take three unpaid furlough days during the 2009- 2010 school year, launching a frenzy of both action and confusion.
The average teacher in the Calhoun City Schools makes an estimated $53,000 annually. This means that the aver-age decrease in pay for the 2009-2010 school year due to furlough days is roughly $836 annually or $69.73 monthly.
“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,” Calhoun School Superintendent Michelle Taylor said last week.
Shortly after Perdue’s announcement the Georgia Educator’s Association questioned the legality of the issue stating that the state government could not interfere with local contracts between a teacher and a school system.
‘The governor has handed off the responsibility for making these hard decisions to the superintendents and school boards," said Jeff Hubbard, president of the Georgia Association of Educators. "He does not have the author-ity to mandate furloughs for school employees because they are essentially employed by the local school systems."
During an emergency meeting of the state Board of Education Tuesday, the board approved a recommendation to declare the current state budget situation a critical shortage in state revenue. This approval authorized local boards of education, such as the Calhoun City Schools Board of Education, to redefine the school year schedule. This would allow the school board to change the terms of contracts, thus furloughing educators for three days.
The new State Board of Education rule defines a school year for certified staff, such as teachers and administra-tors, as a minimum of 190 days. The state board’s action this week allows local boards of education flexibility con-cerning all school days in excess of the 180 days of instruction or the equivalent that is mandated by state law.
"I am as frustrated as everyone else that declining revenue has led to our teachers being furloughed," said State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox. “We ended last school year with great momentum and record student achievement and it’s unfortunate that we have to begin a new school year with this issue weighing on our teachers.”
The Calhoun City School Board of Education participated in a statewide conference call Wednesday led by the Georgia School Board Association attorney Phil Hartley.
“It is our point of view, that these changes need to be done carefully, thoughtfully and not done in haste,” Hartley said.
He also encouraged all school boards to develop a comprehensive plan that that looks at laws pertaining to teacher’s contracts, and also cash flow. “It is hard to develop a plan that will work for all 180 school systems,” Hart-ley said.
But furloughs are not the only changes. Other areas of state funding have also been adjusted. That state is also cutting an additional three percent of Quality Basic Education (QBE) funding. QBE is the main source of state fund-ing for school systems to pay teachers.
Equalization grants were also cut by three percent. These grants fund lower-wealth school systems that do not generate adequate local revenue to provide students a quality education.
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