Rome City Schools superintendent still working on budget details, Floyd County Schools working out cuts

Rome City Schools superintendent still working on budget details, Floyd County Schools working out cuts

by Kim Sloan, Staff Writer Rn T.Com

As the Floyd County school system struggles to figure out how to cut an estimated $7 million in salaries for fiscal year 2014, the superintendent of Rome?s system says he?s ?cautiously optimistic? that he won?t be making any major budget cuts.

But Rome Superintendent Jeff Bearden said he has no idea at this point if his system can absorb any personnel who might be leaving the Floyd system because of the Reduction In Force plan.

The system looks to hire highly qualified staff, Bearden said, but he is not sure if there will be room in the budget for any new staff for the 2014 fiscal year.

Floyd County Schools Superintendent Jeff McDaniel announced the RIF plan during last week?s school board meeting.

According to the plan, $4.1 million would come from the instruction area and $1.2 million would come from school administration salaries.

The rest of the staff cuts include $700,989 in the pupil services sector, $494,876 in general administration, $298,511 in maintenance, $95,989 in transportation and $91,997 in business services.

Teacher contracts for both school systems have to be finalized by the middle of May.

McDaniel said the reason for announcing the plan now was to give those might be released from their jobs time to look for another one. Floyd staff members are expected to be told be the end of the week if they will be cut.

The Rome News-Tribune has filed an open records request for information sent to the principals outlining the cuts.

?I know that this process has been difficult for all of our personnel in our system,? McDaniel said in a press release issued on Monday. ?It is our hope that making the hard decisions as early as possible this year will help those impacted prepare for the next school year.?

Bearden said he is still putting together the Rome City Schools budget for next year. They have not been told how much revenue they will receive from the state, he said, but he is ?cautiously optimistic there will be no major cuts.?

McDaniel said blamed continuing state cuts over the past 10 years as one of the reasons why there is a need to reduce staff.

The Floyd school system has absorbed state reductions of more than $50 million between 2003 and 2013, according to McDaniel.

Source: http://romenews-tribune.com/bookmark/21697884

Black Mesa matt ryan matt ryan att wireless Mother Jones cars Bacon Number