DeKalb County's Budget Woes: What Gives?

(click headline to read what board member Paul Womack, District #4, said last August about the state of the school system's budget.)

DeKalb County Schools say they have a $74 million shortfall in their budget this year and have been hearing public comments about what things might be cut or kept. 

Here's the AJC article:  http://www.ajc.com/news/dekalb/dekalb-schools-facing-70-1442996.html

And here is a link to a play-by-play of the citizens' comments:  http://tucker.patch.com/articles/fernbank-supporters-dekalb-parents-address-school-board#video-10186173

But, the elephant in the room is the question of "how did we get here?"

Since the school board does not have an online check register or any other way for the public to see how they are spending our money, we can only take their word for it.

That would be fine if we had folks on the board that we felt we could trust.  But, in District #4, less than a year ago, Paul Womack, the incumbant for this area told a room full of parents that everything was fine.  He even said we might be one of the best in the state in terms of fiancial stability right now.  Here's his direct quote from August 31, 2011:

Please don't
vote for H.
Paul Womack,
District #4,
DeKalb
County

Womack:    "Well, let me, let me respond to the taxes. The school board does not raise taxes… since 2000. Ah, I was chairmen of the Budget Committee we cut 104 million dollars out of the budget. A lot of it was in the area that most people were concerned about. And that was in staff. And we got rid of a lot of things that we shouldn’t have. That we know of.  This year the administration was pushing through another budget and I was able to stop it. I’m vice chair. And we cut another 15 million. We are not going into the classroom. We have increased the number of students. But we have, I think, as good of a fiscal record as any school system, probably better than most. We did not do what the county did - raise property taxes, what? 28 percent? We didn’t do that. But you know, I don’t really buy that the community did not know because Medlock and a couple of areas around the county found out. They had to have knowledge because they came to the board and said, “No.” And the board said, 'Ok.' We listen you. But nobody came to, from this community and said 'no.' "

http://dekalbschoolwatch.blogspot.com/2011/09/transcript-from-briarcliff-es-pta.html