Toombs BOE Tentatively Adopts New Budget
The FY22 budget topped the agenda as the Toombs County Board of Education met June 10. The $48.9 million budget, which has been substantially buoyed by revenues from the federal CARES allotments, was tentatively adopted in a session earlier on Thursday. A public hearing on the proposed budget will be held June 24 at 5:30 p.m. A called meeting, in which the budget is expected to be adopted, will be held at 5:45 p.m. The budget hearing has been announced through local news outlets, and occurs annually during this month. Superintendent Barry Waller reported a 25% increase in SPLOST collections, which continues to prove this year as a record financial year in that department. Superintendent Waller also shared the school’s funding is currently sitting at $7.7 million with expenditures. This is the current amount remaining from the 2021 budget and is projected to end the term with the school having $7.5 million in the bank. FY21 began with a fund balance of $4.6 million; thus, $3 million are from the FY21 budget, due mostly to the CARES funding.
During his report of student achievement, Waller announced that the Toombs County School System has been named one of 24 National Beta Districts of Distinction. The school system has an active Beta program in every grade level in which Beta may be active—grades 4-12. In addition, Waller spoke of the success of Session I of summer school, which has one more week of sessions for the 150 K-12 grade students who have participated to make up for learning lost and credit recovery.
A facilities update was provided by the Board: the new bus shop will be inhabited the week after July 4 and is expected to be fully complete with fences and gates by the end of July. New playground equipment is being installed at Lyons Primary, Lyons Upper Elementary, and Toombs Central Schools for the coming school year. Also, the groundwork for a new parking lot at The Pit (football field) has been completed, and a corner has been cleared for the creation of a new ticket booth. The Board also approved the Athletic and Extracurricular Supplement Scale for FY 22, which was unanimously approved. This scale determines the amount of extra funding will be supplied to various extracurricular and athletic activities for the year.
