Debate over what and how much to cut from the Blount County Schools general purpose budget showed a split between the schools and some Blount representatives Tuesday, July 9.
Blount County commissioners opted after a lengthy conversation to vote next week on an amended schools budget proposal that would cut over $500,000 from the total, $127.7 million allocation county commissioners approved in June. Included in those cuts are several programs offering services directly to students.
Commissioners’ decision Tuesday came shortly after the county budget committee voted unanimously against recommending that the commission accept the school’s amended budget. Committee member and county Mayor Ed Mitchell said that that budget troubled him.
“I’m looking to see if there’s a way that doesn’t impact the students in the classrooms, because that seems to be what the focus is on the cuts,” Mitchell said. “I’ve seen this budget from the schools framed in a way that places the blame on the county commission, for the general purpose school fund, not having enough money to do what (the schools) want. And that’s just not true.”
The cuts stem from a lack of better options, BCS staff told The Daily Times Wednesday.
The county school board in the spring adopted a budget with a shortfall that neared $4 million. Their initial budget request to the county amounted to $130.2 million; the commission instead allocated $127.7 million for BCS. That decision triggered a further school board meeting on the budget and a request then for only $127.1 million.
The school board, rather than the county commission, sets schools’ internal funding priorities.
Savings
It’s been a year of major change to education in Blount County.
The school district, like all others in Tennessee, is required to set the base pay of teachers with bachelor’s degrees, but no experience, at at least $50,000 by 2026. BCS will meet that requirement in the coming school year, a fact referenced several times Tuesday. The raise came with a price tag of $3 million, according to previous reporting from The Daily Times.
But Blount elected officials and staffers on Tuesday expressed confusion and frustration about the amended budget from the schools and about the programming that would be affected if it were adopted.
A program aimed at high-achieving students would end under the amended budget. Two graduation coaching positions would be cut as well, along with other reductions. It doesn’t seem necessary, said county Director of Accounts & Budgets Brian Baldwin.
“It would appear, on paper, that there is anywhere between $1.2 and $1.3 million available to shore up some of those classroom cuts,” Baldwin said. In an email to the newspaper Wednesday, he noted that several line items on the budget showed the possibility for savings. Those line items include: ‘licenses,’ ‘building improvements,’ ‘other contracted services,’ ‘maintenance agreements,’ and ‘architects.’
Mitchell on Tuesday commented on a recent meeting of the school board, saying that, like some school board members then, he opposed the suggested cuts to programming.
The schools’ budget has grown by $36 million since 2021, he noted, though enrollment in many county schools has declined in recent years. Student populations have not declined at Middlesettlements Elementary School, Eagleton College and Career Academy and the Samuel Everett School of Innovation.
And in past budget cycles, like in 2024, educational funding has proven a flashpoint for disagreement between the schools and the general county government. To some, the proposed cuts from the school board came across more as attempts at public relations management than as considered fiscal decision making.
County Commissioner Mike Akard said that in his decade on the commission, he’d never known the budget committee to oppose something unanimously. “I think that speaks volumes to the situation at hand being a power play for public opinion rather than a honest desire to cut the money without harming the children,” Akard said.
Schools respond
For BCS officials at the meetings, though, those and similar comments came as a shock. Kristi Yates, chief financial officer for the school district, said that she felt “blindsided.”
“I sure would like to know where Mr. Baldwin’s finding our money at, because that would be fabulous,” Yates told commissioners Tuesday. “I feel kind of blindsided, but I’ll be happy to try to answer any questions in detail, definitely before your next meeting.”
There’s no way of creating a budget line that doesn’t affect students, she said. “Everything we do touches children, in our budget, from the hallways to the maintenance program, to contracted services, everything we do touches our kids, our staff and students,” she commented.
BCS spokesperson Amanda Vance said that the savings identified by the county would be complicated by a few factors. Funds from ‘other contracted services,” Vance noted, stem from the state Department of Education — they come from the Innovative Schools Model grant, she told The Daily Times. Other such cuts are impossible, she said, because they “are required to support Blount County students effectively.”
And in response to the Tuesday meeting, BCS Director David Murrell wrote a statement that reads in part, “Our district thoughtfully requested funding that supports our top strategic priorities: effective instruction, equipped students and excellent culture. We stand committed as Team BCS that our educators deserve to be paid a competitive wage in the region. As a district, it is our priority to recruit and retain the best teachers to meet our mission of graduating students equipped to achieve excellence.”
Most Popular
Comments / 0