The Catoosa County Schools district saves about $4.4 million annually through a class-size waiver it received from the Georgia Department of Education.
“We requested to have up to an additional five students over the state’s maximum class size,” which varies by grade level, school district spokeswoman Marissa Brower said. “But in most cases where we go over, it’s not more than three students.”
That $4.4 million is a lot of money to the district — almost 5 percent of its annual $93 million budget, which has been subject to “austerity reductions” from the state, the largest of which was a $10 million cut in 2010.
“To avoid putting school systems into bankruptcy, the General Assembly gave the state [school] board permission to grant blanket waivers for class-size requirements, expenditure controls, [teacher] certification and salary schedules,” school district Superintendent Denia Reese said.
Other Georgia school districts have applied for and received those same money-saving waivers. But if they want to keep them, school districts must decide by June 30 whether to change their governance structure and become either a “Strategic Waiver School” or a “Charter System.” The latter is different from a group of charter schools; it means the school district will sign a charter, or contract, with the state that waives most state rules and guidelines.