State Rep. Eddie Smith is optimistic Knox County Schools will have more room in their budget once the state sets its education funding levels.
The school district's proposed fiscal year 2019 budget has been met with an outpouring of concern from parents and educators over suggested cuts to two magnet school programs and Project GRAD, a program aimed at increasing graduation rates, mentoring and helping students find a career path.
Superintendent Bob Thomas recommended cutting approximately $1 million each from magnet programs and Project GRAD in his budget plan.
The board was scheduled to vote on the budget last week, but postponed their decision until April 30. One reason board member Terry Hill said she made the motion to delay the vote was so they could have more time to get information about possible state funding the district will receive.
Hill said she has been working with Smith, R-Knoxville, to learn more about the state funding levels.
In an interview with 10News last week, Smith said he has been reviewing the dollar amounts in the proposed KCS budget to make sure they match the amounts the district will receive from the Department of Education.
"It's just going through all of those different line items to make sure that actually match up with what Knox County's going to get," he said.
Smith said he has already identified $130,000 the district will receive for response intervention instruction that wasn't accounted for in the proposed budget.
"In Knox County's budget, they had about $589,000 being received from the state, and when I checked last night with the Department of Ed, they're actually going to get about $720,000," Smith said.
He said he also plans to meet with the Tennessee Consolidated Retirement Fund to see if a one-time increase can be paid over two years instead of one.
"The percentage went up this year, which is costing about $2.5 million," Smith said. "Instead of doing all of this in one year, we could spread it out over two years, because if we did that, that would about about $1 million less that Knox County would have to allocate to that, which would free up some money there."
The legislature is expected to pass the state's budget this week, which will set the level of Basic Education Program (BEP) funding for Tennessee's school districts.
Smith said the state funding may not make up all of the shortfall KCS needs to fund the magnet programs and Project GRAD, but it should close the gap.
"We may not find all of it, but we may find some," he said.
Gov. Bill Haslam is a former chairperson of the Project GRAD board, and told 10News he hopes the board of education will continue to fund the program.
"It has made a difference in our central city schools, particularly Fulton and Austin-East, increasing their graduation rates, increasing the number of kids who are prepared for college," Haslam said.
The board is set to vote on the budget at a special called meeting before their planned work session on Monday, April 30.
The board's deadline to send the budget to Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett is May 1.