VALDOSTA — The State of Georgia will be cutting public education budgets after all.

Area school systems are in the middle of devising plans to absorb the 2 percent cut handed down earlier in the month.

LOWNDES COUNTY SCHOOLS

Superintendent Dr. Steve Smith felt that the public schools would be exempted from the budget cuts that affected the other government funded entities across the state.

“We were hoping that the signs of the economy would be more favorable and that we could avoid the budget cuts for education,” Smith said.

Now the system is bracing for a $1,028,643 in budget reductions for the current fiscal year.

The fiscal year for the school, dubbed Fiscal Year 2009, began July 1 and runs through June 30 of 2009, Smith said.

“The important thing to realize is the cuts do not effect salaries,” Smith said. “Anywhere from 85 to 88 percent of a school system is comprised of salaries, so that only leaves a 12 to 15 percent window for us to decide where the budget cuts should come from.”

The cuts will also not effect teacher salaries or pay raises, he said.

“The bulk of where our budget cuts are going to come from will be in the area of operations,” Smith said.

Smith said one of his mandates regarding budget cuts is to not cut funds that will impact direct instruction.

Operations including facilities, transportation, maintenance and custodial will receive most of the budget cuts, he said.

To cover the cuts, Smith said, some funds may be pulled from the system’s fund reserve, a savings account for the system.

The LCS property has also been reassessed and the value has increased he said, something that will help soften the impact of the budget cuts.