Local property owners will soon pick up more of the tab for educating area students as state funds continue to be cut from local schools.
Monday night members of the board of education approved a $41 million budget, raising local taxes by $2 million over the previous year.
“We started work on this back in February and had about one budget meeting every month,” said Superintendent Mike Ballew. “We had a budget ready, and then the state cut us another $560,000.”
Local taxes will account for the majority of estimated revenues in the general fund with $23.3 million expected from property taxes, while state QBE funds will bring in another $17.1 million. According to the budget, federal funds will account for $1.1 million, ‘other local sources’ will bring in $250,000 and ‘other’ state money $342,000 more.
These revenue sources will bring in $42 million, and the budget includes $41 million in expenditures, leaving an estimated fund balance on June 30, 2010 of $2.8 million.
The school board will spend $1.7 million less on instruction during the upcoming year, with $26.4 million budgeted in FY 10. The board will also spend less on improving instruction, with $755,695 budgeted this year, $120,305 less than in last year’s budget. Conversely, the system will spend $400,000 more for the maintenance and operation of schools during FY10, with $3.6 million budgeted. General administration costs will increase in FY10 as well, with just over $1 million budgeted, an increase of $115,559 over the previous year’s estimate.
Student transportation will account for $2.67 million while school administration costs will be $2.1 million. Additionally, the system will spend $1.8 million on debt services, which includes the bond payments on the high school, $1.3 million on pupil services and $742,779 for educational media. Business services will account for $393,365 of expenditures, while the school nutrition program will take $67,000 and another $20,000 for central support services.
Mark Mitton, Shane Neighbors and John Trammell were present at the called meeting Monday night.
The board also approved a millage rate of 15.97 mils, and board member Mark Mitton said he regretted having to increase the millage rate, but state cuts left local officials little choice.
“We have been very prudent over the years of cutting the millage when we needed to,” Mitton said. “As much as I hate having to increase it, we still have to run our schools.”
Board Chairman John Trammell thanked the staff for their hard work on revising the budget so often.
“I appreciate all the hard work and the calculating, especially with the number of times we’ve had to change things. I really appreciate all the staff’s hard work to get this ready.”
Following an executive session to discuss personnel and potential pending litigation, the board opened up a policy meeting to discuss guidelines for the use of school facilities.
Although no decisions were made Monday, board members asked school principals to meet with the director of operations to discuss the best possible policy to open facilities like gymnasiums and the fine arts building up to those wanting to use them, while at the same time protecting the interests of the school system.
Issues over the gymnasium facilities arose when players sought to use them at times when coaches or a school board employee could not be present. In addition, others not affiliated with the school or its teams also requested space to practice with traveling teams. In the past, principals used their own discretion when allowing the use of gyms, one mandating a school employee be present, while a middle school principal didn’t allow gym use for anything but school functions.
Although Georgia High School rules do not apply to middle schools, administrators said they try to keep the same rules in place for consistency.
“The thing is that we need to be consistent,” said John Trammell. “We need to make sure all kids have the same opportunities. The easiest thing to do would be to cut it out – zero tolerance – but is that the best for the students?”
School board member Shane Neighbors suggested opening up each middle school gym alternately two nights a week for open practice.
Lloyd Shaddix said the issue could become a problem due to wear and tear on the floors, especially if no fee is charged for use of the building. In addition, he said cleaning crews must have access to the gyms by a certain time each night to clean for the following day’s classes which are held in the gyms.
“There is an issue with the maintenance of the floors,” Shaddix said. “The amount of money we pay out of our maintenance and operations every year for this can get expensive, and it’s very difficult to plan a budget when we don’t have people paying a fee for use.”
Jasper Middle School’s principal agreed, saying the system may not be able to afford to open gyms up, especially in this economy.
“You’re talking about air conditioning, lighting, having personnel there,” Principal Neil Howell said. “This could fall under the auspice of the economy. We simply can’t afford it.”
Mitton said the facilities were built to be used but not at any cost.
“We want the community to use it – that’s why we built it, and we don’t want to price ourselves out of it, but we do want to cover the costs,” Mitton said. “I sure do like the idea of kids in the gym under supervision more than them riding around out there on the roads.”
Administrators hope to have a proposal for board members by the next board meeting, scheduled for September 10.
A video of the meeting is available at www.knowpickens.com.
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