The Standard Journal

Budget remains center topic

- By Kevin Myrick Editor

School board officials now have a tentative budget approved for the 2018 Fiscal Year, set to start on July 1.

What they won’t know yet for some months is whether the Board of Education will need to seek out a Tax Anticipati­on Note (TAN) to help cover the bills for the coming year.

Board members voted to go forward with figures presented by finance director Tammy McDonald during their May 16 meeting, where public comment was also sought prior to approval.

Only one person spoke out during the school board’s latest session, City Commission­er Matt Foster who is also a Northside Elementary School teacher.

He sought to know whether the board would need the TAN, which Board Chair Tommy Sanders replied was not yet known, but would be considered if needed and bids were being sought to provide the lowest interest rate on the cost of any borrowing.

The question of whether the TAN will be needed depends largely on collection­s on the Education-only Special Purpose, Local Option Sales Tax funds still being collected on the 2014 issue, most of which will be used to pay off bonds purchased to pay for school improvemen­ts and the new College and Career Academy facility.

Some $5 million of the general fund balance this year was used to pay off the final costs of the College and Career Academy facility at Cedartown High School, causing a drop in the overall funds available at a given time during the coming year.

The board will pay back the general fund for the constructi­on costs out of some of the SPLOST payments being collected after bond interest payments are completed for the fiscal year.

Costs to the general fund were also incurred due to one time payments made in 2015 and 2016 to teachers.

This year’s budget includes $13 million in local tax revenue and $70,000 from other local sources, with a majority of the annual revenue coming from more than $46 million in money from the state. Most of that money will go toward funding teacher salaries and insurance, which with 2 percent raises tallied in was set at just over $45 million for the year.

The rest of the $17 million the school board could approve after a second public meeting held later this month includes $4 million for the school nutrition program, and $2 million in debt service. Most of the other costs incurred related to maintenanc­e, transporta­tion, general and school administra­tion, central support, pupil services, media-related expenses and transfers of funds for programs.

After all the figures are tallied up and balanced, Polk School District will have an ending balance of $2.1 million left in the bank when they finish up the coming budget year.

One line item set at zero in this year’s budget is constructi­on services, since no new building projects are expected for the coming year.

By comparison, the FY 2018 numbers are slightly down. Revenue is $2 million less than it was during the current budget year, and close to $4 million less in expenditur­es.

The projected ending balance is also $3.1 million less than it was for the current budget year as well.

Most of the costs expected to be incurred for the coming year are due to salary and health benefits for teachers and staff at schools, and administra­tors within the system.

Board member Hal Floyd did ask whether funds would be included to purchase new textbooks. Administra­tors replied they did plan to include some new textbook purchases in the budget for the year if possible, first updating texts used for science and math at the high school level.

Some funds that could come back into the school system will come from the sale of surplus items that were approved to be added to a list in a coming sale.

Those included the sale of classrooms that were once housed in trailers at local elementary schools that are no longer in use at Northside and Cherokee Elementary Schools in Cedartown, a pair of buses no longer in service that no longer can provide parts for working buses, and at least one container of equipment previously used at the College and Career Academy.

Interim Superinten­dent Greg Teems said that he planned to allow bids for the entire contents of the container at once, but it would require written bids from potential buyers.

“We’re not going to run this like an episode of storage wars,” he said.

Board members also approved pending field trips and one trip taken by the Rockmart Tennis team for state competitio­n Teems asked members to ratify after it had already taken place.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States