County Schools Finance Director Christie Jordan on Thursday afternoon presented a $42 million "wish list" of items aimed at bolstering some of the identified weak areas of the school system, including literacy, the high priority schools, and graduation and job readiness assistance. Technology is another big area of the proposed spending.
Ms. Jordan said with projected rises in the property tax and sales tax collections and an additional $7 million in state BEP funds the school revenue should reach $357,832,943.
The $42,040,000 in new spending would bring the budget to $393,298,462, leaving a shortfall of $35,465,519.
Board member Rhonda Thurman said, "As usual, we know we are not going to get this much money."
George Ricks, another board member, said he welcomes all the items on the list, but realized that full funding is not likely.
Ms. Thurman said the board needs to look at some changes that would help it afford more of the wish list. She said transportation for magnet school students should be axed, saying that busing had caused schools to have to start earlier and end later in the afternoon. She said the late dismissal "was killing our vocational program" because voc-ed students were hampered from getting after-school jobs.
She also said the single-path diploma policy was "costing this county a lot of money." Administrator Robert Sharpe said the state had followed the county's lead in going to single-path.
Ms. Thurman also said the schools should drop bloc scheduling and go back to traditional scheduling. She said bloc scheduling had required adding a number of teachers. Board member Steve Highlander agreed that bloc scheduling should be dropped.
He and Mr. Ricks said vocational programs should be expanded. Mr. Ricks noted that was not on the spending list.
Ms. Jordan said she was expecting the property tax to grow by 1.5 percent and the sales tax by 1.5-2.0 percent. She said the schools should know by mid-April the amount of the BEP increase.
The spending increases including adding specialists in teams at the high priority schools, including two for reading and math and one for social studies and one for science. There would also be leaders and recruitment and retention personnel for the high priority teams.
Ms. Jordan said the number of English Language Learning (ELL) students is soaring - going from 1,466 in 2011 to 2,178 in 2015. Additional staff would be assigned to work with these students.
She also said the school system is working with Volkswagen and Chattanooga State on a program in which 25 county school students will take classes at the Volkswagen Academy. At graduation, they would be equipped to step into a job at the VW plant and they would have some college credits. It is planned to initially take students from high schools in the vicinity of VW, but the program may be expanded later.
Ms. Jordan said another idea is to utilize elementary STEAM (the A is for the arts) "to really make a difference in literacy." There would be 44 new positions at the elementary schools, including arts, foreign language and STEM instructors.
There would be $1 million set aside to provide supplies at new schools as they are opened and $1 million to boost the amount given to teachers for supplies. Ms. Jordan said the long-time amount of $100 "is not nearly enough."
She said the schools need to be replacing personal computer devices for teachers and students every four years on a rotating basis.
The list includes a five percent salary increase. Ms. Jordan said county school personnel some years have not received any raises and have fallen behind the Georgia schools and local business rates.
The request includes an extra $2 million for capital maintenance.
The budget also includes funds for different software and technical equipment items
Funding is also needed to reopen an annex at Calvin Donelson School, it was stated.
Ms. Jordan also mentioned a tele-medicine program in which a doctor would diagnose kids' illnesses via the Internet. She said a bookkeeper would be hired to submit bills to TennCare for the service.
She said the charter schools are expecting an increase of 185 students. Chattanooga Charter School of Excellent and the Ivy School are both adding a grade.
Two new school buses are needed, and utilities are expected to be up - especially water and sewer expenses.