Efficiency study might help restore school salaries

The Burke County Board of Commissioners will spend $75,000 for a study of the school district that might — emphasis on the word "might" — help the schools' 1,000 classified employees get back some of the income they lost this year.
At a rare joint meeting of Burke County's board of education and the county commissioners, both sides agreed Monday to cooperate in the three-month-long study by Evergreen Solutions LLC of Florida. The county will pay the $75,000 cost; the school board pledged its staff will fully cooperate. The company will scrutinize the school system's finances and operations and make recommendations that could be incorporated into the 2010-11 budget.
Schools Superintendent Dr. Art Stellar said it's the kind of independent study that he, as an incoming superintendent, would have advocated if the schools had the money. They do not, he said, but with the county willing to pay for the study, "I view it very much as an opportunity."
Stellar said he hopes the study will help show ways to stretch the schools' dollars farther. Having the study done by an outside firm — "someone who doesn't have anything at stake" — will add to its credibility, he said.
School board Chair Buddy Armour said he studied Evergreen Solutions' work for the Duplin County Schools and was impressed by the company's attention to organizational structure and manpower. As one example, Armour said Evergreen Solutions recommended separating two organizational functions. As a result, the district needed two fewer administrative people whose salaries were redirected to pay teachers' salaries.
County Commissioner Ruth Ann Suttle said the county began looking for such an outside consultant back in June, but commissioners felt they shouldn't take any action until after the Nov. 3 election. Now, she continued, there is little time left to complete the study before the two boards start budgeting for next year.
County Manager Ron Lewis said he expects Evergreen Solutions' president, Dr. Linda Recio, will start work here by the end of this week.
After less than a half-hour's discussion on the efficiency study, the commissioners' board chair, Bruce Hawkins, introduced a discussion of the classified school staff's salaries. He revealed that, in a meeting two weeks ago between the two boards' officers and top school and county staff members, the school board proposed moving $275,000 from the schools' capital-expense fund to general operations for salaries.
Anticipating severe cuts in state financial support this year, a majority of the teachers voted last spring to give up half of their local supplemental salary for 2009-10 if the money went to preserve teachers' jobs. The board accepted that offer and also imposed a 6 percent reduction in hours on the classified staff (secretaries, maintenance and custodial staff, etc.).
"What concerns me the most," said school board member Sam Wilkinson, "is this put at least some of our people below the poverty level. If there is something we can do to restore that even to the 2 percent level, that is something that should be done."
Armour explained to both boards that with the school year half over, the 6 percent cut could be relaxed to 2 percent with an injection of $263,000 to $275,000.
Restoring the teachers' supplemental salaries would cost about $750,000 and is beyond the schools' capacity, he added.
Wilkinson pointed out that the teachers voted to accept a pay cut, while the classified staff did not.
On the commissioners' side, Suttle said the county, too, imposed a cut in income on its employees — five unpaid furlough days, which will amount to a 2 percent reduction in income if the last two furlough days occur later this year.
"We'd like to forgive those, too," she said.
Suttle said some of the sheriff's deputies have qualified for food stamps in the past because salaries were already low.
However, Suttle continued, the commissioners and county staff decided to hold off on any decision until they receive more information on sales-tax receipts.
Suttle suggested the school board and county commissioners also should hold off on any decision about using capital-expense funds until both boards receive results of the Evergreen Solutions study.
"The two boards working together can get a lot done," added Commissioner Gene Huffman. "We're working for the same goal: to get our children a better education so they can get better jobs and make this a better county."