The Chattooga County School Board’s called meeting on Tuesday evening at Chattooga High School drew a crowd of over 250 people to hear about the possibility of a four day school week for the county’s school system.  School Board Chairman "Fuzz" Anderson said that it was the largest crowd he had ever seen for a school board meeting.

Dr. Dwight Pullen, the county’s school system superintendent told the crowd that he had not made any recommendations to the school board about the four day week and that the meeting was designed to get input for the school board to make a decision regarding the possibility of a four day school week. 

Pullen took the first part of the meeting to explain the situation that Chattooga County Schools face with a massive budget shortfall in the future. Pullen said that the county’s schools could see as much as a $16 million decline in total revenue from just four years ago in 2006.  End of year revenue’s, the money that the school system has on hand at the beginning of the new school year in 2006 was $1.8 million dollars, this year it will be only around $375,000.  With the current projections and budget, Dr. Pullen sees a $1.5 million deficit in the school system’s budget – which means cuts must be made somewhere.  That number could climb to $2 million if the state recalls some of its Quality Based Education funds.

Already the board of education has cut 16.5 positions from the school system and a 10 day pay reduction across the board from all county school system employees.  Dr. Pullen pointed out that the largest portion of the school system’s budget is teacher pay, which is set by the state. 

Estimated savings from a 4 day school week would be as follows:

$98,204.22 – Savings in Para Pro pay

$69,835.87 – Savings in Transportation Costs

$26,743.68 – Savings in Fuel Costs

$18,163.68 – Savings in Utilities

$54,534.00 – Savings in Substitute Teacher’s Pay

All of these savings would add up to over $267,000 in savings with a four day school week.  Pullen said thse savings, along with the cuts that have already been made in pay reduction and cutting positions would save the school system $1 million.

Other items mentioned that could be used to cut the budget, besides the four day school week were:

Elimination or restructuring of Crossroads

Reduction of Local Supplements to teacher’s pay

Reduction of benefits to teachers

Elimination of Middle School Athletics

Reduction in High School Sports

Elimination of Bus Service within 1 1/2 miles of schools

Property Tax Increase.

Pullen said that "the cold hard reality (is) it’s going to take a combination of these items to reach a potential $2 million deficit."

There were many comments from teachers and parents at the meeting when the floor was opened for questions and comments.  The teachers that spoke at the meeting were afraid that if the school system did not go to a four day week to save money, then there will be larger class sizes and fewer teachers. 

Dr. John Hayes, a retired school system employee and local pastor pointed out that the most important thing to consider in budget cuts was the pupil – teacher ratio.  His comment received a large ovation from the crowd.

AM 1180 will have more on the meeting in upcoming news stories.  Also, the BOE plans to post all of the facts and figures from the meeting on the Chattooga County School system’s web site in the upcoming days.