No furloughs for Berkeley school employees

The Berkeley County School District's budget for next year includes good news for employees: They won't have to take any unpaid furlough days.

Furloughs were a budget-balancing option that district leaders considered earlier in the 2009-10 budget-development process. But at a public hearing Tuesday, chief financial officer Brantley Thomas said they won't be necessary, largely because of $6.8 million in federal stimulus money the district will receive for the 2009-10 school year.

After the public hearing, the school board approved the $191 million budget for next year.

That's about $1 million less than the amount with which the district began the 2008-09 school year, Thomas said. During the course of the year the district lost about 14 percent of that, mostly due to state cuts.

District officials originally estimated that they needed about $198 million for 2009-10. That included money to open the new Cane Bay Elementary School and to add a grade at Cane Bay High School.

But the district was able to cut nearly $7 million from the budget, mostly by reducing the number of administrative positions in the central office, and by borrowing money for some capital improvements instead of paying for them with money from the operating budget, Thomas said.

Superintendent Anthony Parker said, "We can manage with that number" for the 2009-10 school year, but that the district has to continue to trim the budget. Federal stimulus money will only be coming to the district for two years, he said.

And he said he doesn't expect state money for education to increase after the stimulus money is gone.