In an effort to make the best choices for Newton County's students, the school system has compared itself to seven other systems in the state while working on potential cuts to next year's budget.

Superintendent Gary Mathews compared seven like-sized systems with varying enrollment numbers, including those with less than Newton and those with more. Newton County has 19,500 students, while Rockdale has 15,500 and Douglas County has roughly 25,000.

Mathews also looked at the school system's 10 major expenditure categories to see how Newton ranked among the seven other systems. According to his data, Newton ranks seventh in the percent of total expenditures for general administration with only one other school system spending less in general administration than Newton County. However Newton does spend more on instruction then most of the other schools in the study.

In an effort to find $9 million worth of cuts to the 2011-2012 budget, a list of 13 potential cuts has been released. The cuts save a total of $13 million, but allow for those responsible to have several choices when looking at where to save. Additionally, the school system is working with people at each school to see what their thoughts are on cuts and has released a stakeholders survey for the community to take and suggest other things that could be cut from the budget.

The Newton County Board of Education is set to approve the final budget in June and school systems in the state have until May 15 to offer teacher contacts.