DEKALB COUNTY, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -
The DeKalb County Board of Education will meet Thursday night to decide on how to fill an $85 million hole in its budget. Among its options: shortening the school year.
It's an idea that parents like Mary Clarke are against.
"As it is, we're not able to put our kids in the summer program because of how expensive it is," Clarke said. "So mostly kids are at home in the summer doing nothing."
Clarke and her daughter Victoria visited DeKalb County School's headquarters Thursday afternoon to drop off an application for a charter school bus -- a program that has been on the chopping block, but will likely be saved.
The BOE may give teachers furlough days, which would reduce their pay, and cut funding to the Fernbank Science Center, but allow it to stay open.
BOE Chair Eugene Walker said a 9 percent drop in property taxes is to blame.
"As a result of the economy, the two sources from which we primarily get our money have been hit." Walker said.
Board member Donald McChesney suggested a shorter school year at the board's Wednesday meeting, causing the board to delay its vote to get more information from the state to see if it was an option that would be allowed.
The district's Chief Financial Officer Michael Perrone spent most of the day Thursday crunching numbers to see how much money a 10-day cut in the school year would save. By one estimate, it could be nearly $30 million.
The measure would also allow the board to not have to raise taxes, something it hopes to avoid.
Still, Clarke said she'd rather pay more in taxes than have students sit idle in a longer summer.
"I just think the kids need to be in school," Clarke said. "They need to be in school for the whole school year."
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