The Bremen Board of Education met on Monday to discuss their proposed budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year and address concerns regarding the state funding of education.

The proposed budget, though addressed during Monday’s meeting, was tabled and will be voted upon during the June board meeting. If approved, it would go into effect on July 1, 2008, the beginning of the new fiscal year.

According to superintendent Stanley McCain, the budget accounts for the hiring of a number of new teachers. A new sixth-grade teacher has been added to meet state minimum class size requirements and a new math teacher has been hired for the high school to meet Georgia Performance Standards requirements. The board is also adding a teacher at the high school to teach technology and engineering classes as the current teacher will be transferring to the new middle school.

The budget also accounts for a school nurse at the high school.

“Our person there was teaching a full load,” McCain said. “Basically as students had a crises or various health needs, we were not meeting the needs of those students.”

According to McCain, the budget also accounts for new staff members required for the middle school and fourth- and fifth-grade academy, which will open at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. An assistant principal, a media specialist, a school nurse, a book keeper/secretary, a teacher office support paraprofessional, a bookkeeping paraprofessional, a registrar, a secretary, a full-time substitute teacher, a part-time band director, a media clerk, two full-time custodians and two part-time custodians and a special education paraprofessional will all be funded in the new budget.

The budget also adds a 2.5 percent salary increase for all school system employees. According to McCain, the state funds a 2.5 percent cost-of-living raise for all certified employees, such as teachers, but does not fund raises for other employees.

“We want to ensure that all employees in the system receive a cost-of-living raise,” McCain said.

During their meeting, the board also addressed their concerns regarding the state funding of education and a lawsuit between the Consortium for Adequate School Funding in Georgia and the state of Georgia.

School systems are funded through the Quality Basic Education Act, which includes a complex formula governing the contributions of local government and state government in regards to school systems. In 2001, Governor Sonny Perdue recommended austerity adjustments to the QBE formula, reducing the amount of state funds allocated to local school systems. The austerity adjustments have been in place for the past six years.

“It’s a lot of money for a small school system like Bremen,” McCain said. “For six years now that austerity adjustment is $1,471,586. [...] What they have done, is they have put on the backs of local taxpayers what the state is supposed to be funding.”

The Bremen Board of Education is a member of the Consortium for Adequate School Funding in Georgia, a non-partisan group that represents approximately one-third of all school systems in Georgia. The Consortium believes that the state is currently not meeting its constitutionally mandated requirements to adequately fund education.

According to a press release issued by the consortium, the state is underfunding education by 20 percent of the state’s own guidelines, roughly $1.1 billion. This has created a greater tax burden on local communities and made it difficult for school systems with small tax bases to make up the difference through school taxes.

The Consortium filed suit with the state of Georgia in 2005 in an effort to force the state to provide what the consortium feels is adequate funding for Georgia schools. The state tried to have the lawsuit dismissed twice, once in state court and later in the Georgia Supreme Court. In each instance, the motions to dismiss the lawsuit were rejected, and the suit is expected to go to trial in October of this year.

“I believe in my heart that the only way to ever force the governor and the legislature to change is with this lawsuit that we’re involved in,” McCain said.

According to the Consortium, similar lawsuits have been filed throughout the county, with success in 20 of 26 cases.

During the meeting, McCain also announced that an open house and dedication for the new middle school will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 17.