MARIETTA — After delaying a vote last week, which was widely believed to be unprecedented, the Cobb School Board approved a budget for Fiscal Year 2013 on Monday that included restoring two of the originally proposed five furlough days and 52 elementary media paraprofessionals. The board approved an $841.9 million budget for the next school year 4-3 at a special called meeting Monday morning. It included a revised recommendation by Cobb Superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa to deal with the $62.4 million deficit. Opposing it were Kathleen Angelucci, Alison Bartlett and Tim Stultz. Bartlett, Stultz, David Morgan and David Banks voted against last week’s proposal while Angelucci, Lynnda Eagle and Scott Sweeney voted in favor. “This has been very, very difficult,” Hinojosa told the board. “None of us look forward to furlough days, especially since it’s on the back of our classroom employees … if I had my preference, I would never recommend the budget that I’m recommending to you, but unfortunately … this is out of our control and we just have to deal with what we have to deal with, so my apologies go to all the staff members who have to bear the brunt of this budget, but the reality does tell us that we need to adopt this budget.” By restoring portions of the originally recommended cuts, the district will have to take an additional $7.1 million from its reserve funds, which currently sits at about $99 million. “There is the issue of draining the reserve so much that we would be in danger of possibly having to borrow money to make payroll but after the discussion on Thursday, Mike Addison (Cobb’s chief financial officer) and his staff analyzed this a little bit further,” he said. “It’s not likely that we would have to borrow money to make payroll. It’s still a possibility but a lot of other things would have to happen.” The other reductions Hinojosa is recommending include: cutting 350 teaching positions through attrition, which only 15 of those remain; increasing class sizes by two students on average; delaying a pay increase for eligible employees to mid-year; reducing 38 middle and high school media parapro times to 60 percent; using $23 million in SPLOST II excess funds to lower the property tax millage rate and using $28.2 million in reserve funds. Angelucci, who voted last Thursday in favor of the alternative, said she changed her mind after talking to constituents and teachers in her north Cobb post over the weekend. “None of these options are what we want,” Angelucci said after the meeting when referring to the three alternatives presented to them previously in order to face the $62 million deficit. “I just couldn’t do it.” Angelucci also said that the board’s approval of Hinojosa to begin fundraising for a Teach For America contract in FY14 last Thursday played into why she didn’t approve the proposed budget. The initiative would allow for no more than 25 Teach For America teachers to be hired and she couldn’t support that if the district wanted to cut 350 teaching positions at the same time. The other two board members who opposed the budget were Stultz and Bartlett, who both at previous meetings said they couldn’t support alternates because cuts need to be made now since the future budget will not get any better. “I think we needed to do more,” Stultz said after the vote. “I think there just needs to be a very widespread look in the next few years about how we’re going to get over this problem and I would have rather tried to tackle it now instead of trying to kick the can down the road, so to speak.” David Banks, who opposed the recommendation last week by making his own amendments to the budget, also changed his vote and said he chose to vote in favor of Hinojosa’s recommendation for the “good of the school district.” “It’s not ideal and it’s not what I would prefer but it’s where the majority was. I think that’s where the administration was,” Banks said. “I just have a problem when you’re comparing the quality of education versus money, which one is more important? “I would prefer that we didn’t cut any teaching positions and keep our classroom sizes where they are now … I’ll be satisfied with it.” The board also voted 6-1, with Banks opposing, to approve a calendar that included the three furlough days. School employees will take these days on Dec. 21, 2012, and Feb. 15 and May 30, 2013. Banks opposed the calendar because he proposed his own calendar that would give schools their furlough days Feb. 14, 15 and 19, 2013. In other business, the board also spent about three hours Monday morning talking about their rewrite of the Strategic Plan with members of Hinojosa’s senior staff. The discussions, led by Chief Academic Officer Judi Jones, included them writing their belief statements based on the four core values for the district, integrity, creativity and innovation, accountability and achievement. There five belief statements established are: - We believe successful schools are a foundation of community stability, growth and prosperity. - We believe family and community engagement is critical to student and district success. - We believe creativity and innovation are encouraged and embraced by all stakeholders. - We believe in cultivating a positive environment where students are provided pathways for success. - We believe in a constant and purposeful focus on what is best for students. In talking about the district’s vision regarding the Strategic Plan, members also heard from three members of the district staff about student and employee data, programs offered for student success, information on how students have done in the past on tests including ITBS, CRCT and the SAT from 2003 to the current year and graduation profiles and skills that will be needed for the 21st Century classroom. The last exercise in which they participated was the board and senior staff’s conversation about where they see Cobb Schools in 2022. They talked about things such as what the school day will look like, what the most pressing issues might be for a school board and how they will staff schools, all 10 years from now. There will also be five public input hearings over the next two months that Jones said should help with the district’s revisions of the Strategic Plan. The first meeting will be today between 4 and 6 p.m. at the board office, 514 Glover St. in Marietta. The other meetings will be held May 30 at 3 p.m., June 19 at 4 p.m., June 20 at 3 p.m., and July 11 at 1 p.m. Video below is courtesy of our news partner Fox 5 Atlanta