Dire Budget Outlook Seen Again For Next Year
posted November 21, 2009
County School officials said Saturday they are considering building three new schools and merging three existing schools in a $150 million building program.
The list includes consolidation of Falling Water and Ganns Middle Valley and Alpine Crest, Dupont and Rivermont elementary schools. Another new school would merge Harrison and Hillcrest elementary schools.
A new elementary school is proposed south of Apison Pike and west of Ooltewah-Ringgold Road.
Another would be built north of Lee Highway in Ooltewah.
Another proposal is to replace Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts. It is now K-8, but the magnet school is proposed to be K-12.
If all those schools are built, there would be a net reduction of three schools in Hamilton County.
And there are other school building needs - with the new East Hamilton Middle/High already overcrowded and with Sale Creek Middle/High out of space.
Additional adult high schools are needed, officials said.
At the same time, Finance Director Tommy Kranz told board members at an in-town retreat that they will face another dire budget situation.
He said it appears the county schools next year will face a deficit of at least $14 million.
He noted that the fund balance has been shrunk already from $18 million to $12 million.
Mr. Kranz said county school technology needs to be upgraded. He said thousands of system computers are old and should be replaced.
He said property tax collections are lower than projected and sales tax revenues are down.
Counting the need for $13.8 million in deferred maintenance, the shortfall for 2011 is over $26 million.
Mr. Kranz said the dire state funding situation will likely mean less revenue coming to the county schools.
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