Director of Loudon County Schools Wayne Honeycutt presented the school board with more proposed cuts to the county school budget in an effort to eliminate the $278,856 overrun in the budget.

The board has been hamstrung in finalizing the budget because they are waiting to get the final numbers from the state about how much money the system can expect. In light of recent reports of lower sales tax numbers and the overall downturn in the economy, everyone appears to be bracing for bad new on state funds.

Honeycutt's latest budget proposals began with two potential increases - $115,927 for two new growth positions including a new person at the Central Office to keep track of purchasing requests from the schools in light of the system's decision to stop the practice of giving each school money for expenses.

The other new expense would be $5,000 for new software to keep track of the new purchasing system that will send requests from the schools through the office of the county purchasing director. Honeycutt said adding a new person for the new purchasing system would not cost any more money since some positions had been moved from the Central Office budget to other budgets leaving funds for the new position. Honeycutt also told the board it was important to get approval for the new hire as soon as possible so a candidate search could begin and be completed by the time school starts in August. 

The proposal also includes a projected 10 percent increase for insurance costs estimated at $170,378. 

Board member Van Shaver, who has been vocal about his opposition to adding any new personnel in light of falling support from the state and the upcoming building program, said he knew the county purchasing department and the office of county budget director Tracy Blair had added personnel to deal with the change in the county schools purchasing system.

"I cannot  support hiring another person," Shaver told the board.

Board member Gary Ubben said if the Central Office was bypassed by requests going directly to the purchasing office school officials would have, "no control." 

Honeycutt presented the board with a list of options for reducing the budget deficit, some of which he did not recommend. Among the options are reducing salary increases from 2 percent to 1.4 percent to save $146,132; reducing travel by 50 percent to save $46,206; cutting $188,989 from the budget for RTI/Family Liaisons a program Honeycutt described as "very successful;" cutting the pre-kindergarten program to save $107,723 - a cut Honeycutt could not recommend; cutting a maintenance position to save $30,000; and reducing the number of teaching assistants at each school to save approximately $18,300. If all these items were cut or reduced, school officials estimate the budget would be $11,240 in the black. 

Board member Lisa Russell suggested, in light of the expected length of any discussion, the board have a special called meeting to vote on a budget.

After much discussion, the board decided to meet July 8 at 6:30 p.m. in the board room at the County Office Building for a special called meeting. Honeycutt said he expects to have firm numbers from the state by next week and in plenty of time for school officials to adjust the budget accordingly and be ready to present a budget for a vote by the meeting date.