Reading, writing, cutting

"Here we go again."

That's what Walker County Schools Superintendent Melissa Mathis thought last week when she heard that Gov. Sonny Perdue wanted additional reductions to the 2010 state budget.

"At exactly this time last year -- after contracts were issued to all personnel, after the board had approved the budget with no tax increase and the first day of school was imminent -- we as school leaders were informed of immediate, deep reaching cuts," she said in an e-mail.

As the state's deficit nears $3 billion, Gov. Perdue told school officials they will need to cut an additional 3 percent from their budgets, some of which have already been set. Gov. Perdue also said he would withhold three days' of funding of teacher pay.

Leaders in Walker and Whitfield counties met late Monday to discuss how to get by with millions less in state funding than expected. For Dade County Schools, the smallest county system in the area, a 3 percent cut means a $366,000 reduction. Whitfield Schools, the largest area system, will lose about $2.1 million.

Before the call for further reductions, school leaders in Walker, Whitfield, Dade and Catoosa counties already were dipping deep into reserve funds in order to come out with a positive balance for 2010.

Earlier this month, Walker County's school board approved the budget for fiscal year 2010, which began July 1. On Monday night, Walker's board was expected to discuss revising the calendar to address the governor's suggestion that teachers furlough three training days.

System leaders in all four counties said they have no plans to raise taxes and that they will not let furloughs impact student instruction.

"In-service days are very important for teachers to plan for instruction," Catoosa's Superintendent Denia Reese said in a prepared statement. "To minimize the impact on student achievement, we will allow each school flexibility to determine the three in-service days they will eliminate."

Walker officials said they plan to handle the additional cuts internally.

"Everyone's department will be asked to cut back," Walker County School spokeswoman Elaine Womack said in an e-mail. "It worked last year."

Whitfield's Board of Education approved its budget in June and also had plans to discuss additional cuts Monday night.

Leaders in Dade and Catoosa were scheduled to finalize budgets this week, but that was before the call for deeper cuts.

Although Catoosa officials are working on a plan to deal with further reductions, they haven't officially been notified of the state's funding allotment and won't discuss the new cuts at tonight's work session, said Kim Nichols, Catoosa's Assistant Superintendent for Administrative Services.

Murray County recently confronted a $6 million deficit in the fiscal year 2009 budget and cut days from the school calendar to make the 2010 budget more sound. Students will go to school for 160 days, instead of the usual 180 days.

Before further cuts were announced, Murray school officials prepared for further reductions and projected about $55 million in revenues and $54 million in expenditures for 2010.

Over the past year, school officials in Catoosa, Dade, Walker and Whitfield have scaled back in other ways -- implementing hiring freezes, working four 10-hour days over the summer and halting much travel.

"We did plan ahead," Dr. Nichols said. "We began pulling back on expenditures to avoid layoffs."

Mrs. Mathis said the Walker system remains "carefully conservative" while focused on maintaining quality instruction, improving student achievement, providing safety and focusing on community needs.

The continuing cuts mean leaders must continue to adjust, but she said she wants to avoid "a breaking point."

"We cannot maintain 'business as usual' without some systemic changes," she said.