State cuts Sevier County Schools funding

There is still hope, but the disappointment is real already. The initial projections of the 2003-2004 state money for the Sevier County School System showed the system would be receiving at least $29.7 million with the possibility of a little more designated for insurance. Just prior to Tuesday night’s joint Budget and Education Committee meeting, Finance Director Karen King got the call that the final numbers were showing almost a million dollars less. Sevier County will be placed on stability, which cuts the loss to $711,000. Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Jack Parton, was shocked at the change. “We were hoping to come in to the meeting tonight and tell everyone that we didn’t need as much as we thought due to a funding increase, but this took us totally off guard.” Calls to the State Department of Education confirmed what King and Parton have been told. The county has until June 27 to appeal the numbers from the Basic Education Plan formula. The state cites a lower than expected number of special needs students and the county’s ability to pay compared to other counties across the state as the main reasons for the unexpected decrease. Sevier County pays the third highest percentage of local operating funding in Tennessee, which was 34% last year. The system is already the twelfth largest in the state and is projecting further growth in the coming year. County Executive/ Mayor Larry Waters was taken back by the announcement at the meeting, saying, “To me that’s crazy. If their formula doesn’t take into full consideration how fast we’re growing and how much we have to spend on bricks and mortar.” Waters estimated that $60-70 million of the county’s $100 million in debt service was spent on new school buildings. The school budget presented is 5 million dollars out of balance after the unexpected reduction. Officials are crossing their fingers about a reprieve but considering where cuts will have to be made. One of the main reasons for the crunch is the low projections of growth in sales tax revenues. The county revenue has been projected at 8% in years past and has actually grown by more than 10% in some years. Last year the figure was at 4% growth but sales tax revenue only grew by 2%. The proposed budget uses a 2% growth figure.