It's Budget Time At HCDE (Revised)

  • Wednesday, April 15, 2015

It’s budget time again for the Hamilton County Department of Education. The budget that has been presented to the school board for approval is one that would require a $.40 property tax increase to fully implement. So, it is time to give taxpayers a few facts so they will understand why I will not be voting for the proposed budget. 

The 2015-16 budget includes art and language teachers for all elementary schools at the cost of $2.2 million each for a total of $4.4 million. When I asked several teachers how they felt about adding two more things to their class schedule each one said, “How in the world are we going to find the time for more subjects? We do not even have time to do all the things we are required to do now.” Some asked why the administration did not worry more about teaching students to read and speak English properly and do basic math before we teach them another language. 

On Feb. 3, I met with all the principals in District 1 and heard their concerns. I heard how technology was woefully inadequate in each of the schools. I was told that schools test 13 weeks out of the year and the state requires that testing be done on computers and students do not have access to enough computers to do the testing. Testing in some schools requires shutting down computer classes for days so students can use the computers labs to test. I heard discussion about the possibility of leasing computers, making computer techs more convenient by locating one in the Soddy-Daisy area so computers can get repaired in a timelier manner. I also heard telecommunications systems need to be reviewed so computers will not go down when phones go out. But never, did I hear one thing about foreign language in elementary being a top priority.  

The BEP funding formula provides partial funding for classroom teachers’ salary, insurance, FICA and retirement. According to the formula, Hamilton County has 530 more teachers than the BEP allots for a county our size. For each of those 530 teachers, we pay 100 percent of all salary and benefits. The school board is currently looking at building a high school at East Hamilton. That means another entire staff of teachers, administrators and support staff that Hamilton County will have to fund 100 percent. Then there is CSLA who not only wants a new building for their current K-8 school, but they also want to expand to a K-12 adding yet again, another entire high school staff requiring 100 percent HC funding.

Not only will one-time construction cost be about $45 million each for new high schools at East Hamilton and CSLA, the school board must also consider the millions in recurring yearly cost for salaries, utilities and maintenance. BEP funding is based on enrollment. I just do not see our enrollment growing enough to justify two new high schools.  

I voted for HCDE to join in the lawsuit to sue the state over Hamilton County being underfunded by the state in the Basic Education Plan. I saw the need to bring to the forefront the fact that the Tennessee legislature should be required to use the right numbers in the education formula (BEP) that they wrote. Just using the correct numbers would bring millions each year to our school system. One area where an incorrect number is used is in certified personnel average salary. The BEP uses $40,447 as the average. The actual number is $50,117. Just correcting this one number would bring Hamilton County around $14 million a year.  

Also, HC has 157 principals and assistant principals and the BEP only allots partial funding for 95.5 principal and assistant principal positions. For the 51.5 positions not funded, HC pays 100 percent. Here again, when new schools come online HCDE is adding more administrative personnel without any additional BEP funding. 

Another area that needs to be addressed is the formula used to pay a HC employees health insurance. The formula provides for 50 percent of the cost for insurance for 10 months. However, the school system provides insurance for 12 months. Providing 50 percent funding for 12 months of insurance instead of 10 would generate another $1.9 million in our budget. 

Mandates sent down from the state to the counties with no money attached to implement them is also very concerning. 

It has been said that school board members who ask that the BEP be fully funded want the state to go up on taxes. I will tell you that is not what this school board member wants. All I want is for the correct numbers to be used in the BEP formula they wrote. Hamilton County sends a lot of tax money to the state. All I want is for our state legislature to fight to bring as much of the taxes we already pay back to Hamilton County.  

Before I go to the taxpayers for more money, I will be satisfied that the school board and its administration has done everything to insure that the money we already receive is being spent in the most efficient manner possible to educate students. We need to evaluate the programs we have had in the school system for years to see which ones that are not working and eliminate them. We need to assess the things we are doing that we are not required to do such as magnet school transportation. Magnet school transportation was started with a grant which expired many years ago, but, as with so many government programs, it never stopped when the money did.

Eliminating one tier of bus service would not only save money but, would also allow students to have later school starting times. We also need to look at open enrollment and allow students to transfer to schools where there are “open seats” instead of having to hire more teachers to relieve overcrowded classrooms. Then there is the $400,000 stormwater fee HCDE is now required to pay to the city that other educational institutions are not. It is ridiculous that taxpayers in essence are paying a tax to the city of Chattanooga for stormwater with the tax dollars they send to the school system.  

Like I said, I do not want to raise taxes at the local or state level. I just want all elected officials to do all they can to ensure that Hamilton County gets back its fair share of the tax money we already send to the state by insisting that the BEP be fully funded. As an elected official, I want to treat taxpayer money the way I do my own and cut the budget where it needs to be cut, make sure money is spent wisely, don’t spend money you don’t have and ensure you get money you were told you would receive. 

Rhonda Thurman 

* * * 

In my previous post I failed to include a few pieces of HCDE budget information that will further explain the things, as a school board member, I have to take into consideration in voting for or against a proposed budget.  

In order to give teachers and all other HCDE employees, including administrators, a 5 percent raise, it will cost taxpayers $11 million. (For every 1 percent raise it cost taxpayers $2.2 million.) Here again, the state only funds pay increases for the state portion of a salary. That increase will only be for the percent the state approves and only for the employees funded in the BEP.

Anything above the state approved raise is entirely on Hamilton County. For example, if the state approves a 2 percent raise and HCDE approves 5 percent, HCDE is required to pay the additional 3 percent to BEP funded positions, plus 5 percent on the county portion of their salary as well as the entire 5 percent to the 530 teaching positions and the 61.5 principals and assistant principals not funded in the BEP as well as the entire 5 percent of almost the entire central office. Many have asked about using our fund balance to fund some of these expenses. I will never vote to use one- time money for recurring expenses.  

Eighty-one-82 percent of HCDE budget is salaries and benefits. To add two more staffs of employees for two new high schools and 44 more teachers in elementary for art and foreign language would add millions to HCDE payroll every year.  Adding this many new employees  will make it harder to give any substantial raises to HCDE employees in the future because instead of being able to give raises with any new money HCDE receives, we will have to use all new money for new salaries.  

From the school house to the White House elected officials must do their job and make hard choices and quit passing tax burdens on to our children and grandchildren. Some say a $ 0.40 property tax increase is like buying a “slurppy a day.” Others say it is “what most of us spend on cable TV and cell phones each month.”  I expect any day for the HCDE to hire the lady who sells programs at the Lookouts home games to help with the property tax push. I can hear her now, “Only 40 cents! Just 40 cents!” It does not matter whether it is slurppies, cell phones or cable, it is taxpayer money and they have had enough. 

I have heard every year since 2004, from three different superintendents, how HCDE is going to have a school system that will be the envy of the South. Instead, after hundreds of millions of tax dollars, smaller class sizes, changes in curriculum, 1 to 1 computers in the lowest performing schools and countless millions from grants, ACT scores have remained stagnant or declined to the point that two schools did not have one student pass the ACT.  

Until we face the fact that money is not the answer to our educational woes, the real problem will never be addressed. The bottom line is this- until an education is important to parents and essential for students to get a job so they can have a car, a house, a cell phone and food to eat, you can bankrupt all of the taxpayers in Hamilton County and nothing will change.  

Rhonda Thurman 

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