Jefferson Davis County Superintendent of Education WayneFortenberry said his office is further reviewing cost-savingoptions after being listed as one of 23 districts that could beoperating with insufficient funds under current projections for thestate education budget.

Dr. Pat Cooper, McComb Separate school district superintendent,said the situation there is dire, but “we’ll make it work.”

“We can make it one more year, but it’ll probably use all of ourreserve dollars,” Cooper said.

Lawmakers were told Tuesday that 23 school districts in thestate could be operating in a deficit situation next fiscal year ifthe Legislature adopts recommendations that call for an 8 percentteacher pay raise, but underfund the Mississippi Adequate EducationProgram.

In the local area, nine districts made the list of schools thatface severe problems under the current proposal. Those districtsinclude Amite County, Copiah County, Hazlehurst Separate, FranklinCounty, Jeff Davis County, Marion County, Columbia Separate, McCombSeparate and Simpson County.

Steve Williams, director of accountability for the stateDepartment of Education, said state districts would have to absorbabout $65 million next fiscal year under a proposal submitted bythe Joint Legislative Budget Committee.

MAEP is a funding formula adopted in 1997 to ensure every schooldistrict receives enough money to meet midlevel accreditationstandards. MAEP was underfunded by $79 million this fiscalyear.

Neither the JLBC budget nor Gov. Haley Barbour’s budget fullyfunds MAEP in the fiscal year that begins July 1.

Fortenberry said his district has already made cuts in previousyears and is essentially down to the bare bones in operating costs.He added that firing teachers to lower salary costs was not anoption in his district. They’ve already done that.

“Due to last year, and other years when MAEP wasn’t fullyfunded, we’re already at capacity in our classrooms,” Fortenberrysaid. “We can’t increase the teacher per pupil ratio any more thanit is.”

Districts are required by law to a maximum of 33 students in ahigh school classroom and 27 in an elementary classroom.

“We’re close to the maximum,” Fortenberry said. “We’ve downsizedour classrooms as much as we can.”

The district’s 2,240 students are taught by a faculty ofapproximately 175 teachers on five school campuses, he said.

The district is reviewing other options, Fortenberry said, butbecause of changes made in previous years there isn’t much fat totrim.

One option under consideration is to convert to four-day schoolweeks, he said. That would save on busing costs and utilities,among other areas.

Another option, he said, would be to seek another increase inmillage dedicated for education. The district has requested anincrease three out of the past five years and currently has amillage rate of 33.5, which remains low compared to the stateaverage of 50 mills. Schools cannot request more than 55 mills bylaw.

Under the current education budget proposal, Fortenberry said,it is possible the Jefferson Davis County School District wouldseek a referendum requesting a major increase in millage.

“We’re at 33 (mills) and could possibly leap all the way to 55.However, we’re very hesitant to do that for obvious reasons,” hesaid, citing the county’s depressed economy. “We’re a poor countyeconomically and we’ve tried to keep our millage low so as not tobe a burden.”

A booming economy in Pike County has saved the McComb SeparateSchool District from increasing its millage rate, Cooper said. Thedistrict has not had to raise taxes in the past five years,although a 3 percent bond issue was passed five years ago to fundnew buildings.

“That’s only because our assessments went up so much (with thenew industries locating here). We’ve been able to maintain with thesame millage,” he said.

However, Cooper said he expects the state auditor to slap thedistrict with a violation this year because of the budgetprojections. School districts are required to maintain a 5 percentfund balance to cover emergencies, such as school burning down, andunder current projections the district will have to dip into thatreserve fund.

“We technically will be below that 5 percent fund balance, whichis what the state auditor requires us to have,” Cooper said. “We’llbe perilously close to not being able to respond if anything of anemergency nature happens.”

Superintendents Charles Kirkfield at Amite County, RickeyClopton at Copiah County, Dr. Gloria Robinson at HazlehurstSeparate and Lona Thomas at Franklin County were unavailable forcomment.