As the school system presented the Hamilton County Commission with a funding plan that closes a $16.2 million deficit, several commissioners praised the school board for bringing a balanced budget – something that had been a point of contention during the board’s budgeting process.
Hamilton County Commissioner Joe Graham, R-Lookout Valley, thanked school board members – over half of whom were present at the meeting Monday – for “holding the feet to the fire” and asked them to not stop after this budget.
He warned that he didn’t foresee a tax increase next year, which will be another tough budget year, and it’s unclear if there will be revenue growth.
“If you keep doing what you’re doing now and we haven’t received any more money in growth than what we maybe anticipate, then we’re ready for it,” Graham said, “So we’re not gaslighting the county, making everybody upset about something that could possibly happen that didn’t happen.”
(READ MORE: Hamilton County Schools budget cuts jobs, reduces benchmarks)
Hamilton County commissioners praise school district’s balanced budget
District officials attribute the shortfall to a combination of local tax revenues coming in lower than budgeted and rising costs, particularly a $12.5 million increase in health care. School system leaders repeatedly acknowledged that the cuts made to accommodate the deficit would affect services and outcomes for students and families, and several of their proposals faced heavy backlash from community members.
Later in the meeting, Superintendent Justin Robertson referred to Graham’s comments and said he doesn’t see it as gaslighting. Tennessee’s open meeting laws sometimes require the district to have hard conversations in public, he said.
“The reality is this budget – and I’ve said it from the beginning – these are not superficial cuts,” Robertson said. “These are cuts that are hitting deep, and even though we’ve made cuts in the past, they’re not cuts that the everyday person would have felt.”
The final budget, which the board approved earlier this month, removes half a position of the principal’s choosing from every school, reduces benchmark testing from three times a year to once and cuts $5.3 million from the central office. It also gives all employees a one-time $2,000 bonus but does not include years-of-service raises or an across-the-board increase.
As the school board considered how to accommodate a funding shortfall, the decision over whether it should present the County Commission with a balanced budget or one with an additional monetary ask was one of the largest areas of disagreement.
Several Democratic members – who ultimately voted against approving the budget – advocated for passing what they called the right budget to educate students, but they were overruled in mid-April when the majority Republican board voted to ask the superintendent to present a balanced budget. A further attempt to include a wish list of items the County Commission could choose to fund if more revenue was available was also tabled.
Throughout his presentation, Robertson highlighted the impact of the district’s investments – the teacher retention rate is 90% and the graduation rate is the highest it’s been in a long time, for example.
The district is asking for over half a billion dollars, Commissioner Warren Mackey, D-Lake Vista, said. He asked how Robertson would respond to a parent asking what they were getting with that money.
They’re getting a public school experience that is improving dramatically and is leading the state in a lot of the areas, Robertson said. Regardless of what a kid wants to do, he said, that opportunity exists.
“When this community commits to public education,” he said, “we create those opportunities for them.”
Contact Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.