Good schools come with a price, members of the Fayette County Board of Education were reminded Monday night.

In a meeting punctuated by reports of student science achievements and news that the district's 17 elementary schools were recently reaccredited with glowing recommendations, the board was also told that the process of drawing up a budget for the coming fiscal year would prove no easier than in recent years, despite a state economy on the upswing.

That's because nearly all of the $3.5 million in extra state revenue Fayette County Schools expect to gain starting July 1 will be needed to fund 2 percent raises that Gov. Sonny Perdue has already promised teachers, Comptroller Lee Davis told the board.

Davis took over as chief financial officer for Fayette schools last fall after holding a similar position in Clayton County for several years.

He replaced longtime finance director James Stephens, who was known for his fiscal frugality. Stephens wouldn't even consider an increase in the local tax digest greater than 5 percent, and Davis said his staff doesn't intend to be any more optimistic.

"I believe a 5 percent increase locally is safe, but I wouldn't go above that percentage," Davis said.

A 5 percent increase in the value of taxable property in the county would translate into about $3.5 million more revenue to the schools, Davis predicted.

Combined with the state increase, that $7 million still won't be enough to cover the added cost of 31 new teaching positions the board approved back in January, nearly all of them going to Whitewater High School which adds an 11th grade starting in August.

Superintendent John DeCotis also pointed out that the proposed budget doesn't take into account any austerity reductions from the state, but expressed confidence there would be no further reductions in state revenue at least this school year.

The average cost per position is $61,000 a year, including salaries and benefits, DeCotis said.

"Are we going to be able to fund those $2 million in additional positions?" DeCotis asked hypothetically Monday. "We just don't know."

In fact, Davis said an initial rough draft of the 2005-06 budget shows at least $8 million more in expenses over this year's $156 million spending plan, just to meet basic needs.

"So we're already starting out $1 million in the hole," Davis said.

And that's without factoring in the impact expected from soaring gasoline prices and the rising cost of utilities, as well as feared increases in the cost of employee insurance and benefits, said Davis.

It also doesn't begin to take into account as much as $2 million that board members would like to spend to begin a five-year overhaul of the district's troubled computer network.

"We obviously have a lot of work to do," Davis said, noting that the three-month process of coming up with a new budget is in its beginning stages.

"We want to look at the worst-case scenario and start budgeting backward from there," Davis told the board Monday. "We're starting to look at places where we may need to cut, but when 90 percent of your expenses go for personnel it's hard to find places to trim that easily."

Department heads have been given a deadline of April 1 to submit their individual requests for the coming year, and Davis asked board members to consider dates starting early next month to begin scheduling budget workshops.

Even after the board agrees on a budget, likely in late May or early June, law requires that it hold three additional public hearings before setting the millage rate, or the amount of taxes charged to property owners to fund school operations.

The whole process must be completed by July 1, the start of the new fiscal year.

"We think we're going to be able to work through this, but we wanted you to be aware of it," DeCotis told board members.

In a related matter Monday, the board approved a $1.150 million lease-purchase agreement for new school buses for the coming year.

The contract with Nalley Motor Company of Atlanta to purchase six special education buses and 12 full-sized bus was slightly higher than if the district had purchased the vehicles from two separate vendors, but Transportation Director George Davis said the cost savings for parts and the like would prove beneficial in the long run.

In other action Monday night, the board:

-�Approved new job descriptions for the positions of Diagnostician and Instructional Support Teacher in Exceptional Children's Services Department, which will serve several schools and specialize in testing/evaluation or support services for teachers and parents;

-�Approved a change in the district's policy regarding Family Medical Leave so that employees who want to take short-term disability at 60 percent salary as provided under the Georgia Merit System benefit plan don't have to exhaust their accumulated sick leave before beginning that benefit.