Cobb Teachers Sound Off on Budget

Only a small handful of people turned out for a public hearing on the proposed Cobb County School District fiscal year 2014 budget Tuesday.

But they packed a raw, emotional punch.

Several teachers and coaches at Walton High School were especially vocal about budget proposals that they said would increase morale problems and stress levels that have been building up for several years.

Among the proposals included in a tentatively adopted budget (see green column in attached PDF) include 182 teacher position cuts through attrition, a mid-year cost-of-living increase, higher insurance costs for teachers, larger classroom sizes and five furlough days.

Those components are part of a budget plan that addresses an estimated deficit of $86.4 million. The school board is expected to formally adopt a budget on Thursday.

"I am saddened at the state of affairs in our school district and by the treatment of my peers," said Walton teacher Rocky Hidalgo, who is also the school's head football coach.

Hidalgo, who has been at Walton for 17 years and has two children enrolled in the Cobb district, strongly denounced district leadership and panned a proposed "strawman" program that could shift as many as 25 percent of all Cobb school district teaching positions to lower-paid online jobs by 2018 to cut costs.

"We are at the breaking point," Hidalgo told school board members, who sat silent during the 30-minute hearing. "I don't think you understand the groundswell" of frustration from teachers.

Walton biology teacher Tina Link -- the STAR teacher of the year in Georgia in 2012, and nominated again this year -- said she didn't intend on saying anything, but asked the board to consider raising property taxes, warning that the county's strongest drawing card -- the value of its public schools -- is starting to erode.

"No one wants to pay higher taxes, and I know it's not popular," said Lee, who has two children who graduated from Pope High School and has another who is a Walton freshman. "I don't know if you really hear us, or if you really care. But come spend a day with with me. Come step in my shoes."

Her thoughts were echoed by Tripp Allen, also a Walton teacher and assistant football coach.

"Fiscally conservative people will pay for a good product," said Allen, a product of DeKalb County schools. "I consider myself fiscally conservative, but I've also seen what happens when a school system falls apart. Stand up and do the right thing.

"You're going to destroy the county if you don't fix the problem."

After the meeting, Hidalgo and Allen engaged in a lengthy conversation with Cobb school board chairman Randy Scamihorn (see the attached video), who pointed out that the district isn't getting requisite funding from the state, among other revenue sources. He encouraged teachers to contact their state legislators.

"We're with you, we're not against you," Scamihorn said. "We're struggling to minimize the pain."