Toombs County Board of Education Approves Budget

mrandolphadvance@gmail.com

The Toombs County Board of Education officially approved the school system’s budget for the 20232024 school year at a called meeting on Thursday, June 22.

The approval came after two public hearings — one that was held on June 8, and another that was held prior to the vote on June 22. During these hearings, no members of the public addressed the Board with concerns, but Superintendent Barry Waller explained to the Board the difference in the 2023-2024 budget and the previous 2022-2023 budget.

“The FY24 tentative budget is about $500,000 less than what we approved at the midterm adjustment for the FY23 budget, so we will operate on a little bit less than that. However, we’re looking at the possibility — the projection — of having to dip in just a little bit to the [General] fund balance with this year’s budget to about $200,000,” Waller explained.

“The reason for that is a perfect storm of a couple different things: the increase of the salary and benefits [for employees], such as the benefits portion that will see an increased insurance for the next 3 years; as well as a $200,000 decrease to our equalization funding because property values were assessed and our local 5 mill share went up [which caused us to need extra funds from the general fund.] That is the first time that that perfect storm has hit, but the good news is that we will finish out the year with $11,000,000 in fund balance. We’re even thinking that there is a possibility that by midterm, that will be offset as well.”

The budget was approved on a unanimous vote and will now be implemented to fund the operations of the district.