CENTRE — It's like the old saying: Prepare for the worst, hope for the best.

Cherokee County Schools Superintendent Brian Johnson and his budget planners are taking the adage to heart while they await negotiations in Montgomery that will determine Alabama's education budget for the 2010-2011 academic year.

“About this time of year, we begin looking at our budget and try to predict what we're going to have,” Johnson said. “Of course, there's no way to do that, because we don't know the budget until it is passed by the Legislature.”

Instead of waiting, Johnson and his staff have been busy for weeks preparing for just about anything from the Alabama Legislature, including the "worst-case." Basically, Johnson said, that would be a budget identical to the one he ended up with this year.

Whatever the final numbers turn out to be, though, they probably won't be good enough for Johnson to keep all of his employees.

“Then we take those numbers and we sit down with each principal and ask them what they would have to do to get by,” he said.

Last week, the Mobile Press-Register reported that representatives from the School Superintendents of Alabama, the Alabama Association of School Boards, and the Alabama Association of Business Officials are working together to try and persuade Gov. Bob Riley to revise the state's revenue projections, which determine funding for the education system.

Over the last two years, school boards across the state have been forced to dip into reserve funds to pay employees kept on the payrolls because of overly optimistic financial predictions from officials in Montgomery.

That's exactly what happened in Cherokee County in 2009, Johnson said.

He and the members of the Board of Education made personnel decisions based on the level of funding the state said it was going to provide. When tax collections came up short, the school system had to pay for dozens of employees it had already contracted to keep but could no longer afford.

Johnson said the school system simply can't do that for another year.

“Based on this year's budget numbers – and this would be devastating – we would lose 22 teachers and 11 support personnel, out of 532 total employees,” Johnson said. “We're currently funding those employees out of our state-mandated reserve fund.”

That's an undesirable situation, Johnson explained, because the state prefers that each school system maintain at least a month's payroll in the bank at all times.

“Right now, we're down to about seven-tenths of a month's payroll in reserve,” Johnson said. “That's better than most systems in the state. A few have even had to borrow money to make their payroll.”

As educators in Alabama know all too well, any economic slowdown indicates a looming funding shortage in the classroom. Johnson said only proper planning in each of the previous two years prevented the state's shortsighted funding promises from devastating the Cherokee County school system.

“We've been cutting back over the last several years, in light of the economy and knowing it was going to get bad, and preparing for this,” he said. “We're fortunate that we've been able to cut back, save money and even put away a little bit. But right now, we're in panic mode.”

Later this week, the Legislature will get to work on a new annual budget that educators across Alabama hope will be more practical in its projections.

“We hope to have a budget in committee [this] week,” Rep. Richard Lindsey, D-Centre, who chairs the House Education Budget Committee, told The Post Friday afternoon. “The next week we hope to have a budget on the House floor.”

Lindsey said the budget for 2010-2011 will likely be around $400 million below this year's already prorated amount. Among the cost-cutting ideas legislators will be considering is a shortening of the academic year by at least a week.

“If we reduce school by five days that will save about $90 million,” Lindsey said. “Then we will likely cut programs in other areas try to come up with enough reductions that we can get close to this year's funding level.”

Lindsey said one of the last places the Legislature will look to save money is a further reduction of funding for teachers.

“We feel like we're down to the bone now,” Lindsey said. “We don't want any more teachers to lose their jobs.”

Neither does Johnson. But he realizes he will probably be left with few options, even if the state is somehow able to replicate the current school year's budget numbers.

“It's difficult times,” Johnson said. “I don't have a solution but to me, education dollars should fluctuate with the economy.”

Johnson said at the end of the day, he and the rest of the educators who are still on the job come August will do what they always do – make the most of what they're given.

“Even though we've had reductions, everyone around here is being very positive,” Johnson said. “Teaching is still going on and test scores are still going up. We have a great school system.”