In a case of "two steps

forward, one step back," Fayette school system administrators and

board of education members continued down the difficult path of balancing

the budget for the coming school year at Monday's regular meeting.

The good news: Any increase

in school taxes will likely come in under 1 mill, comptroller James Stephens

told the board, and projected revenues next year from the county tax digest

are now looking up as the economy brightens.

But salaries and benefits to

school district employees will remain flat, with an earlier proposed pay

increase of 1 percent to all system employees cut to just one-half a percent.

That's barely $5 a week to the average employee, said board member Janet

Smola, and after Uncle Sam gets a bite, what's the point?

"I'd like to find a more

creative way to put more money into the hands of our classroom teachers,"

she said.

It could have been worse. Superintendent

John DeCotis said the county is paying the employee share of a $10 a month

increase in medical insurance benefits, and is still committed to seeing

all teachers due a scheduled step increase get that raise though the state

is not funding them.

"So if we weren't paying

the extra in insurance, even with the half-percent increase in pay, our

teachers would be getting a pay cut?" asked Chairman Terri Smith.

The board's newest member,

Lee Wright, questioned planned expenditures this summer on the Fayette

County High track and similar projects. The track replacement alone is

budgeted at $200,000.

"Can't this $200,000 go

for salaries?" he asked.

Mike Satterfield, head of facilities

services, said the track desperately needs replacing and has been on the

needs list for four years. What's more, the work at FCHS will include

fixing longtime drainage problems and replacing the visitors-side bleachers.

Satterfield had a list of

annual maintenance projects and the like that have already been bid out

is out next week. Included is renovation of the LaFayette Education Center's

"D" building to make it usable by the freshman class of Whitewater

High next fall.

The board broke those agreed-to

items off from the overall FY' 04 and gave the OK to proceed.

Stephens said the budget is

"very close" and asked if board members wanted to speed up the

formal adoption, but they agreed to stick by an earlier schedule that

allows for another workshop on next year's funding. By law, the budget

must be adopted by June 30, but it will likely be approved at the June

16 meeting.

Also Monday, the board approved

the appointments of business representatives to serve on the school councils

at each campus. Under the state's new educational accountability guidelines,

schools are required by law to have advisory panels made up of members

of its community, DeCotis explained. Half of Fayette's schools had them

this year, and the remainder come online in the fall.

Approved were: Trip Copeland,

Georgia School Equipment, Braelinn Elementary; Kathy Hughes, South Towne

Chick-fil-A, Brooks Elementary; Steve Webb, Georgia Institutional Furnishings,

Cleveland Elementary; Bonnie Smith, Region's Bank, Kedron Elementary;

Forrest Cate, Andy's Nursery, and Ron Sanford, T-Square Remodeling, Sara

Harp Elementary; Will Griffin, Homebanc Mortgage, Rising Starr Middle;

Doug Barnett, Towne Center Chick-fil-A, Starr's Mill High; Mike Holmes,

Peachtree City Chick-fil-A, Crabapple Lane Elementary; and Doug Mickey,

Fayetteville Chick-fil-A, Fayetteville Intermediate.

In other business Monday, the

board:

·Approved yet another

round of staff reassignments and new hires, most all of them at the classroom

level..

·Heard from a concerned

Peachtree City parent, Susan Adcox, about safety issues at her neighborhood's

bus stop, but took no action and deferred to Deputy Superintendent Fred

Oliver to find a solution.

·Spent 40 minutes honoring

more than 100 students from throughout the county for various honors and

awards earned in the school year, which ends Friday.

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