The Columbus Municipal School District held a public hearing Saturday morning to discuss a proposed $40.5 million budget for the upcoming fiscal year.
The financial picture presented was a bit brighter than last summer, when the board struggled to cope with decreases in state and federal funding, skyrocketing expenses and a plummeting fund balance.
But while expenditures are $3.65 million less than Fiscal Year 2011-2012, total revenue may drop as well, due to anticipated federal funding cuts. School districts are allowed, by law, to only anticipate 85 percent of the previous year’s federal funding for the upcoming year’s revenue.
If the board adopts the current draft of the budget, they will ask the city for less ad valorem taxes — $12,858,482 million compared with $13,046,187 last year — but it’s too soon to tell whether the City of Columbus will have to raise millage in order to meet the district’s request.
As population in the city decreases, the value of a mill continues to drop each year. In 2010-2011, one mill equaled $208,000, falling to $205,000 this year. One mill will equal $203,000 for the upcoming fiscal year, according to Lowndes County Tax Assessor Greg Andrews.
Controversy arose last summer when the city had to raise the millage to 65.97 to meet the district’s ad valorem request. Previous Superintendent Dr. Del Phillips had held the millage steady at 62.97 mills for three years, but many argued that while not raising millage may have been a popular move, it placed the current board in the precarious position of having to request a steep increase that still would not fully meet their needs.
Dr. Martha Liddell said she was pleased with the proposed budget, which she expects will be voted upon at the Aug. 10 board meeting. It must be presented to the City of Columbus for approval by Aug. 15.
She praised the district’s cost-savings, especially in the instructional budget. Earlier in the year, Liddell informed 69 certified teachers and support staff that their contracts would not be renewed.
At the time, personnel costs accounted for 76 percent of the operating budget, but now — even though the district has rehired 50 of the 69 teachers — personnel costs represent 68 percent of the operating budget, with a teacher-pupil ratio of 25:1.
“We’ve made the kind of strides we needed to make, and now we can focus on our mission, which is to educate kids,” Liddell said Saturday after the budget hearing.
“They’ve done a lot better job,” Ward 3 City Councilman Charlie Box said of the proposed budget. “It’s obvious they’ve spent a lot of time on it. I think it’s getting there. I don’t know that we’re there, but it’s getting there. If that’s the way it stays, I’ll be pleased with it.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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