As of Thursday, February 23, 2012
© Copyright 2013
Rockdale Citizen
CONYERS -- The Rockdale County Board of Education held its first budget hearing last week with no public input.
Before its monthly meeting last week, the board held a public hearing to discuss the budget for Rockdale County Public Schools for the 2012-13 school year.
"We encourage and value public input," said school board Chairman Wales Barksdale during the meeting. "The administration will consider all of the input we receive."
Although many guests were present for the meeting, nobody gave any public input about the budget. One person spoke during the regular session meeting, wondering why the board didn't present any information on the budget.
The public hearing was held to gain input from the public; Lee Davis, chief financial officer for RCPS, said after the meeting that system officials will present more details on budget items in March and April after more planning is done.
From now until April, school and system administrators are preparing and reviewing budget proposals at schools and for central office departments, and the budget committee will prepare a system budget.
Staffing and salary schedules will be determined in April, and the school board is expected to adopt a tentative budget on May 17.
The board is expected to approve a final budget on June 14 and a millage rate in July or August.
The next public meeting for budget discussions is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 14, in the board room at the RCPS central complex, which is located at 954 North Main St. in Olde Town Conyers.
More like this story
- Rockdale school budget talks begin this month ( January 10, 2012 )
- School board to hold budget hearing Thursday ( February 26, 2013 )
- RCPS plans for less staff, more pupils ( January 27, 2011 )
- School board plans for budget year ( January 5, 2013 )
- RCPS to start 2010 budget process soon ( December 29, 2009 )
Comments
Freedom1 1 year, 3 months ago
It was a sham, evidently the Board thinks a Public Hearing is one-sided. What were we supposed to offer comment on? They offered nothing, just sat there....crickets. This was the most embarassing meeting yet with Board members withholding any information on what to expect this year and smugly accepting the fact that no one is making comment. I guess al the emails and previous discussions didn't clue anybody in that we were looking for responses from them! Truly amazing. Are we really going to vote these guys back in?
ctownslimm 1 year, 3 months ago
You want input? Cut the number of gold badges at the County Office in half. It will save us their salaries as well as cut out all the hair-brained schemes they are coming up with like this new report card initiative and the "Restorative Circle" fiasco during pre-planning. Those guys seem to be sitting around shopping for expensive educational programs instead of solving real problems.
VPublicola 1 year, 3 months ago
The School Board was presenting a dog & pony show. Regardless of whether comment was made, the School Board will not THOUGHTFULLY or SERIOUSLY consider public comment. They'll listen alright but their decision has already been made, which is to rubber stamp anything the King Mafia puts before them. As one Board member said, we are not supposed to be responsive to the public.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID