Fayette County homeowners may

face a 1-mill increase in school property taxes to make up for the $2.2

million shortfall Fayette schools still face for next year.

That was one of the likely

scenarios spelled out for school board members in a called meeting Monday

afternoon, where comptroller James Stephens confirmed the district was

still shy about $2 million of meeting its $146 million budget goal.

Stephens said a 1 mill rise

in taxes, generating an extra $3.6 million in revenue, will be enough

to put the school system over the top in replacing state cuts with local

money.

Superintendent John DeCotis

said the other alternative would be to dip into reserve funds, a reality

that might come to play even with the tax increase because the state's

cuts have remained so fluid in recent months.

"That $2.2 million is

on top of what they had already told us they were going to cut, including

nearly $4 million in annual growth funds," DeCotis said. "So

right there, that's about $7 million more we had to find locally."

Stephens said the school district's

share of good faith funds, the amount it has to put up to get the bulk

of the state money, has risen as well to about $17 million annually. This

year, well over half the total school budget will be funded locally.

Details of the budget were

withheld from the public and the media Monday, but the largest chunk of

it,some $118 million,will go to pay salaries and benefits, Stephens said.

Work to tighten the budget

further will continue over the next couple of weeks, Stephens said, as

he laid out a timeline for approving the plan. The tentative completed

budget will be ready for board review by June 2, he said, and a period

of public disclosure must follow. The board will give final approval to

the spending schedule, and any change in the tax structure, by June 23.

The fiscal year begins July

1.

In other called business Monday,

the board approved the hiring of 14 new teachers and the reassignment

of another 24. That's a scattered few compared to the near 150 job reassignments

made last month, necessitated as the district opens two new schools next

fall while keeping staffing levels near even with current levels.

Also Monday in a work session,

board members heard a proposal from DeCotis to adhere stricter policy

to "surplus" teachers, or those certified in a particular area

but employed at a school that doesn't need them. For a variety of reasons,

it has been difficult for teachers to ever return to their original school

assignments once they've volunteered for surplus status, even when a job

that meets their qualifications becomes available back at the first school.

Board members generally felt

the policy was unfair to the originating school and principal, who had

no choice but to let the teacher go and then search for a replacement.

"Either way, somebody

has to lose somebody," said Board Member Janet Smola. "It's

just putting the work off on somebody else."

Though most teachers volunteer

for the transfers and end up happy at their new schools, there have been

examples of teachers who felt mistreated and principals who felt dumped

on, several board members reported.

Most centered on the "stay

put" dates written into the policy. Teachers who seek transfers on

their own have a much narrower window in which to make that decision,

while administrators can pretty much choose to make transfers for the

coming year right up until the end of post-planning.

The board recommended making

the day after the end of post-planning the deadline for making any transfers,

no matter the reason.

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