Schools

East Atlanta Patch Blog: Atlanta Public Schools Budget Meeting

School officials to meet with parents to discuss fiscal year 2012 budget at Parkside Elementary in Grant Park

We'll be blogging from APS' budget community meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday evening at Parkside Elementary.

The district has held a series of community meetings to discuss its proposed $578 million budget for the upcoming school year.

The proposed budget shaves $11 million from last year.

Find out what's happening in East Atlantawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

6:07 PM meeting starts

APS' CFO Chuck Burbridge says local property tax revenue make up about 79% of APS budget with 20% from state. Total revenue is $578 million.

Find out what's happening in East Atlantawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

6:13 PM

The majority of the $441 million in local property tax revenue comes from Fulton. Roughly $20 million comes from DeKalb.

6:14 PM: District wants to avoid layoffs so APS is running as lean as possible. "We're trying to maintain the integrty of the district," Burbridge says.

6:17 PM: Millage rate of 21.640 remains unchainged. Same rate since 2008.

6:18 PM: Nearly half-hour into meeting, very few people here. Most are are APS staff.

6:21 PM: Biggest chunk of the budget is instruction: $379.4 million or 66% of proposed budget, representing a decrease of 3 percent from last year's budget. Charter schools are $41.5 million, or 7% of the budget. Unfunded pension liability is $39 million or 7% of total budget. Unchanged from last year.

6:29 PM: Bunbridge: "We're trying to manage a budget without cutting personnel." APS is doing by not giving a Cost of Living Increase or step increases, budgeting two furlough days for all APS employees. Making other cuts.

6:31 PM: Some costs are projected to rise so APS increased some items like fuel- $1 million; SACS recommendations implementation - $100,000 in the proposed FY2012.

6:34 PM: APS assumes Property tax revenue will continue to drop — 5% in 2012 alone.  No expectations of Property tax revenue rising until 2016. But other costs will rise. By 2017, APS expects costs will be $640 million but revenue will only be $560 million.

6:40 PM: One potential bright spot: the moratorium on local tax assessors that prevents them from raising property valuations expires next year so that could mean more revenue for the district.

6:42 PM: Now it's Q&A...Q: Which employees will be affected the most in terms of cuts. A: Trying best to do it through attrition.

6:58 PM: Meeting is over.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from East Atlanta