The Marietta Daily Journal – Chair Randy Scamihorn Cobb County school system is broke

Cobb school board member Scott Sweeney called on parents at a Wednesday town hall meeting to deprive Gov. Nathan Deal of another term in office if he doesn’t give the school system more money.

“Gov. Deal needs to feel uncomfortable,” Sweeney said to about 100 parents gathered at East Side Elementary School. “He needs to think the people of Cobb County will not support him unless he writes in additional funding for education. It’s a fight for dollars.”

Board Chairman Randy Scamihorn and member David Banks, who were also at the meeting, agreed with Sweeney.

“The second largest school system in the state of Georgia is broke. That’s alarming,” Scamihorn said.

Instead of pointing fingers at the board members for failing to balance the budget, Sweeney told parents they should be on their phones with their elected officials, asking for state funding.

Sweeney said if constituents make enough of a stink in the coming year — an election year — the district might see some of those funds this year.

Superintendent Michael Hinojosa is projecting a $79 million shortfall for the 2014-15 school year, which begins in July.

Reserves, teacher furloughs, staff cuts?

The district has a reserve fund of about $75 million, said Brad Johnson, the district’s chief financial officer. Johnson said dipping into the fund again would be less than optimal, as he would like the district to maintain at least enough money in the fund to run the school district for a month, $71 million.

“We keep using one-time sources for solutions to recurring problems,” Johnson said.

Other options the board has to reduce the budget shortfall are to increase furlough days or cut teaching staff, which would increase class sizes. Both options, Hinojosa said, are bad decisions to make, but might be necessary to balance the budget this year.

Each furlough day saves the district about $3 million, Hinojosa said, but reduces the time students are in the classroom.

He did not address the possibility of cutting staff at the central office.