John Coffelt, Editor

A proposed last-minute $670,000 cut to Coffee County Schools’ budget that is already in the red has left the district concerned about how to move forward with less than a month left until the new fiscal year begins.

Coffee County Mayor Dennis Hunt told Coffee County Schools Business Manager April Melson at the June 10 County Commission meeting to anticipate the cut coming. The Budget and Finance Committee approved during the June 5 meeting pulling TVA funds that fall outside the maintenance of effort requirements. 

“If it was me, April, I would start moving towards amending your budget without it. Then if it does not pass…you get it anyway.”

That revenue stream has been given to the schools for over 20 years since 2004 to operate on. Tuesday night was the first time that the county officially notified the schools that it could be pulled from their budget.

Melson cautioned the commission that the cuts could negatively impact the school’s upcoming budget.

“Our board approved with that revenue included, to go into the fund balance about $1.3 (million) to be able to give our employees a 4% increase,” Melson said.

The school board approved their budget in mid-May.

“For me to amend our budget, it would have to go back before the full board at a special call meeting, then go before Budget and Finance for it to be in the commission vote on June 24,” Melson said.

“We’ve had some discussions in our office on how we would accomplish this, but at this time there is not a plan.”

Melson voiced concern if the board would approve going $2 million in the red. The staff raises are designed to over the next two budget cycles to meet state requirement to get teachers to the minimum $50,000. 

“It was very hard to get them to approve that. I don’t know if they would go $2 million,” she said.

Coffee County School Board Chairman Thomas Ballard told the Times that hegot word of the cuts after the meeting. He said that it will be discussed during an upcoming work session.

“(Director of Schools) Mr. (Scott) Hartgrove and Miss Melson are looking at that,” Ballard said. “We are going to have to go back and look at. That’s a big chunk of money so it’s going to be challenging to revise the budget with us losing that much money.”

Ballard said that the system is required to have a base teacher salary of $50,000. The raises are part of a schedule to meet the state deadline over the coming budget cycles.

“I hope (the cut) is not going to affect that. But that is certainly going to be a challenge for Mr. Hargrove just starting off,” Ballard said.  

Ballard would not commit to supporting a budget with a $2 million deficit.

“We try not to project a budget deficit on a budget. That’s really not good finance, so where the money would come from to make up for things is (something) we’re going to have to go back and look at,” Ballard said.

Budget and Finance Director Tim Morris said, “(The schools) need to know are we going to take that away right now so she can do some things with their budget.”

As it stands, the county budget is facing a potential $3 million dollar shortfall with preliminary numbers in place. Presented during the discussion June 5 was a 7% employee raise that would cost the county an additional $1.3 million. A similar cut to the Coffee County Sheriff Department was proposed by Sheriff Chad Partin that would pull money from the SRO program – to use temporary state funds allocated for local SROs.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.