Teachers will get a pay raise in the coming months but the increase will not be as large as they had hoped.

During a meeting Thursday night, the budget committee of the county commission voted to reject the proposed 2018-19 budget for schools which included a request for a $2,400 local increase in pay for each teacher and certified personnel and a $1,500 increase for non-certified support staff. The only pay raise teachers can count on now is a $600 increase the state will be funding.

In his meeting with the budget committee Monday night, May 21 Director of Schools Patrick Cripps tried to make the case for giving teachers more money saying DeKalb County is not keeping pace with other counties in the rate of pay for teachers and they (teachers) are getting harder to come by.

Members of the budget committee want the school board to spend no more local money in the new budget than it has this past year. The committee is concerned that the county cannot afford to pay for all the proposed new spending requested by the school board without digging too deeply into the school system’s fund balance.

The Board of Education will now be forced to revisit its proposed budget and make cuts or revisions. In addition to the proposed pay raises, the school board had requested new spending for other needs but that too might have to be eliminated unless the board can re-work its budget to fund them with the money it already has coming to the district.

The Board of Education wanted more money to purchase Chrome Books for the 3rd through 5th grades at a cost of $240,000. Students from the 6th grade through high school already have Chrome Books. Extra funds ($20,000) would be included to repair and replace existing Chrome Books.

At the May 21 meeting, Cripps said $215,000 is needed to buy new textbooks. “This is a big change in our budget. This year is science adoption and that is K-12. We have to get new books for every student. The average book is $150,” he said.

New funding ($25,000) was also requested to implement a Dyslexia Program to help children at the elementary school grade level in reading. “The state is really pushing for testing of dyslexia and they are going to start holding us accountable for identifying our students that may have this issue. That program would be in K-2. It will help with reading and identify struggles kids may have,” said Director Cripps.

The proposed budget included $10,000 in new spending for meeting mandates of state evaluation and testing.

“The state mandates that we have a Response to Intervention (RTI) to see where students skills are as far as remediation in math, English, and reading and what we need to do to meet those students needs. With that you have to buy materials to test them. A universal screener. That costs $12 for each student per test in grades K-8 and that’s three times (per month). We check them throughout the month in between those three times to see the progress they are making,” Director Cripps said.

Due to the increasing demands of technology, the board wanted to make a current half time computer tech position full time ($16,000 in new money) which would give the school system three techs.

One new bus is usually purchased each year. The board wanted to buy two new school buses this year. That would be an extra expense to the system of $100,000.

Extra funds were also included for employee matching benefits and $2,500 to help schools cover their phone bills. “We have added $500 per school to assist with phone charges at the schools since they have to pay for their own phone bills,” said Director Cripps.

The proposed new spending for schools in this budget came to more than $1.7 million dollars over expenditures budgeted this past year and possibly could have been as much as $2.2 million if spent on a recurring basis without any increases in state BEP funding.

The budget committee is also trying to hold the line on spending in the general fund next year as well.

Except for pay raises already approved earlier this year for county employees and anything mandated by the state, the budget committee is recommending that no new spending be included in the general fund for the 2018-19 budget.

Requests from the Assessor of Property and County Clerk for an additional full time employee for their offices based on need were denied by the budget committee along with a request for more local funding for the Recovery Court and a proposed $5,000 increase in salary for the EMS director.

In order to close out the current fiscal year June 30 the county expects to go into its fund balance by from $600,000 to $900,000 to balance. By this time next year, the county might have to take as much as $1.3 million from its cash reserves to balance the books.

The budget committee is hopeful that more revenue will be generated in the ambulance service next year to offset the expenditures and the county’s subsidy of the EMS operation. In the last couple of years the county had contracted with another company to do the patient billing and collection for the ambulance service but saw receipts decline. The county is ending that agreement and will once again do the patient billing in-house at the ambulance service hoping to improve collections.

The budget committee will meet again Monday evening at the courthouse to review proposed budgets of other departments. Still to be considered are budgets for the local highway department, solid waste department, requests for charitable contributions, and others.

When the budget committee finishes its work, it will make a recommendation to the entire county commission for passage of the consolidated budgets for the 2018-19 fiscal year. Members of the committee say they do not plan to recommend any local property tax increase this year.

Saint Thomas Health today (Thursday) announced executive leadership changes at Saint Thomas DeKalb, Highlands and Stones River Hospitals. The newly structured hospital leadership teams will be comprised of a chief administrative officer and director of nursing. Saint Thomas Health is part of Ascension, the nation’s largest Catholic and nonprofit health system.

At Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital, Brad Mullinax will serve as the new chief administrative officer. Previously, Mullinax served as the director of clinical operations at Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital. Mullinax will be supported by Emily Elrod, who has been appointed as the director of nursing at both Saint Thomas Stones River and DeKalb Hospitals. Previously, Elrod served as director of clinical operations at Saint Thomas Stones River Hospital.

In support of Saint Thomas Health’s mission and strategic direction, the leadership team continues to look for the best ways to provide affordable, safe, and quality and accessible care to all, with special attention to those most vulnerable.

“Our leadership structures will continue to develop to support the goals of our strategic direction, and these changes include elevating and promoting Saint Thomas Health associates to help sustain our hospitals in the future,” said Gordon Ferguson, president and CEO of Saint Thomas Rutherford Hospital and president of Saint Thomas regional hospitals. “As we continue to make our care delivery operations more efficient, we have made the decision to form separate leadership teams for Saint Thomas DeKalb, Highlands and Stones River Hospitals, allowing for a focus on growth, quality and operational excellence at each hospital.”

At Saint Thomas Highlands Hospital, Richard Tumlin will serve as the interim chief administrative officer. Tumlin was most recently the chief operating officer at Southern Hills Hospital in Nashville where he worked since 2011. Tumlin graduated from both the University of Georgia and Georgia State University and currently lives in Brentwood, Tenn. In addition, Jennifer Halfacre will serve as interim director of nursing at Saint Thomas Highlands Hospital, and she will be supported by Bob Peglow, chief nursing officer for the Saint Thomas Health regional hospitals. Halfacre will continue her current responsibilities for surgical services at the hospital.

At Saint Thomas Stones River Hospital, Brian Gill has been named chief administrative officer. Gill has been extremely involved with the behavioral health services provided at several Saint Thomas hospitals, and he will continue to support the behavioral health services provided at Saint Thomas regional hospitals.

As a result of these changes in the executive leadership structure, Andy Wachtel will be transitioning from his role as president and CEO for these three regional hospitals. Additionally, the clinical operations position has been eliminated at each of these hospitals.

“With the ever-changing landscape in healthcare, we must continue to evolve to meet the needs of our communities, and the new executive leadership structure will allow us to have a strong leadership presence at each hospital every day,” said Ferguson. “Times of change can be difficult, but we remain committed to the continued service of each of these regional hospitals.”

ABOUT SAINT THOMAS HEALTH

In Tennessee, Ascension’s Saint Thomas Health operates nine hospitals in addition to a comprehensive network of affiliated joint ventures, medical practices, clinics and rehabilitation facilities that cover a 68-county area and employ more than 8,000 associates. Across the state, Saint Thomas Health provided more than $92 million in community benefit and care of persons living in poverty in fiscal year 2017. Serving Tennessee for 15 years, Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, with special attention to persons living in poverty and those most vulnerable. Ascension is the largest non-profit health system in the U.S. and the world’s largest Catholic health system, operating more than 2,600 sites of care – including 151 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities – in 22 states and the District of Columbia. Visit www.sthealth.com.