Hamilton County school board clashes over budget reductions

In a contentious meeting Wednesday night, Hamilton County school board members raised their voices while debating where to make cuts as the district faces an up-to-$18.5 million budget deficit for next school year.

“This board needs to speak to the administration because I don’t feel like the administration’s listening to this board,” school board member Jodi Schaffer, R-East Brainerd, said. “There, I said it. This is the board’s budget. We are accountable to who elect us. We are accountable to the students, the taxpayers, the parents and this board has to be strong.”

District officials presented the board with the second version of the system’s proposed budget, which at least two board members said they would not vote for.

The proposed budget removes half a position of the principal’s choosing from every school, eliminates capital maintenance funds and cuts $5 million from the central office. It also reduces or adjusts, rather than eliminates as originally proposed, magnet school transportation and substitute nurses.

(READ MORE: Commission talks sales tax vote for Hamilton County Schools)

District officials attribute the budget shortfall to a combination of lower-than-expected local tax revenues and rising costs, particularly a $12.5 million increase in health care. The school system projects that local sales and property tax revenues this year will come in at $6.6 million less than what it budgeted for, according to district data.

There are four main points of contention school board member Ben Daugherty, R-Signal Mountain, said he sees with the district budget: substitute nurses, magnet transportation, staffing at Washington Alternative School and eliminating the print shop. He presented a list of cuts to the central office worth over $3 million and suggested the district find around $800,000 in cuts in order to preserve those four programs.

Superintendent Justin Robertson said his main objective was to push as many resources to schools as possible. The proposed budget is balanced and is at a place where the district can continue to operate effectively.

If the board says to find another $800,000 in cuts, Robertson will do it, but he said it’s not what’s good for the district and will cause lost results. Several of the positions Daugherty listed are already on the list of cuts or are grant-funded, the superintendent said.

“We brought a lot of options,” Robertson said. “A lot of options have gotten shot down. This is not my budget. It’s y’all’s budget. Talking about a values-based budget, this is what I would take.”

As Robertson said this, he pointed to a slide with an alternative values-based budget option. That budget would, among other items, reinstate the half position at every school, give all employees a one-time $2,000 bonus and include step raises for staff. It would cost $26.3 million more.

The board had previously asked for a balanced budget.

Characterizing the district’s decisions as if it prioritized central office over school staff is unfair, he said.

The central office staff makes up 8% of the 5,500 people employed by the district, which is lower than the national average of 9-12% for similar districts, officials said. After the proposed cuts, it would host around 7% of all staff, Robertson said.

Board Chair Joe Smith, R-Hixson, said he would like to see the district find the additional cuts.

If the district is meeting metrics it has struggled with for over 20 years, school board member Jill Black, D-Chattanooga, questioned which outcomes the board was willing to sacrifice by making these cuts.

(READ MORE: Hamilton County educators defend jobs facing possible cuts)

Vice Chair Karitsa Jones, D-Chattanooga, said she would not vote for anything other than a budget that asks the Hamilton County Commission, which serves as the funding body for the school district, for what it takes to run the district efficiently, effectively and secures existing employees.

If the district never asks for what it needs, she said, it will never get it.

“I want to vote for a budget that shows my baby at 5 years old that I care enough about him and his peers that may be 18 years old and in between,” she said. “I care enough to stand in the gap and say it’s going to cost a billion dollars to run Hamilton County Schools, and this is what we need. That is the advocate that I am. I am tired of doing the dance. My feet hurt.”

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In a back-and-forth near the end of the meeting, Jones said the board was creating a hostile and toxic work environment.

The district already has that, school board member Larry Grohn, R-East Ridge, interjected.

These conversations are not beneficial to the school system and the students it serves, Jones said. She said she was actively getting texts from staff in her district that said this doesn’t look good.

Schaffer said she was, too, but hers were saying thank you for speaking up.

The board needs to figure out how to advocate for what’s best for the school system, which is asking for what it needs, Jones said.

“What’s best and right for children, not the system,” Schaffer responded.

The children are the system, Jones said. Without students, there is no system.

The board is expected to vote on the budget at its May 8 meeting. It must then get approval from the Hamilton County Commission, which serves as the funding body for the school district.

Contact Shannon Coan at [email protected] or 423-757-6396.