001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> root and so as soon as they >> Excuse me? >> Mhm. >> That's fine. >> Yeah. >> [clears throat] >> Hey. Hey. >> [clears throat] >> Hey. >> Okay. Come on. >> What an inch? >> Sorry. All right. We will now call this meeting to order at 11:18 a.m. We will start with a roll call for the record. I am chair Dr. Carmen Sutton and I'm present. When I call your name, please indicate if you are present. Uh Vice Chair Ricks? >> Present. >> Board member Anderson? >> Not present. >> Board member Herndon? >> Present. >> Board member Eury? Not present. The purpose of the budget hearing is for the public to provide feedback on the tentatively adopted budget. This hearing is similar to public comment at our monthly board meeting.
002Therefore, members of the board will not address persons commenting or speaking to the substance of any comments made during the budget hearing. Instead, a member of the administrative team will follow up with persons commenting or asking questions. All questions and feedback will be taken into consideration prior to approving FY 27 budget. On June 2nd, Dr. Broom, please proceed with the budget hearing presentation. >> Good evening, Dr. Sutton Vice Chair, esteemed members of the board, Superintendent Dr. Woods. Today's budget is an overview of the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, including our budget development process, major revenue and expenditure categories, strategic investments, and next steps before final adoption of the budget and millage rate. The budget hearing also gives the community and all stakeholders an opportunity to provide verbal feedback and comments on the fiscal year 2027
003tentative budget. Georgia State Law Code 20-2-167.1 specifies that each school governing body shall hold at least two public meetings for the purpose of providing an opportunity for public input on its proposed annual operating budget before adopting any budget. All public meetings with the discussions satisfy this requirement. The district has held approximately 21 public meetings on the budget. The community has been actively engaged in the budget process and has submitted over 100 comments via the budget feedback link, which remains open throughout the year. Additionally, budget discussions have taken place at over nine board meetings and two board community meetings, which consisted of open discussion. Today, I present to you the fiscal year 2027 tentative budget for all funds. As we move through tonight's day presentation, it is important to remember that the proposed fiscal year 2027
004budget is grounded in the district's strategic accelerators with a specific focus on accelerator number four, organizational effectiveness and excellent financial transparency. The development of the fiscal year 2027 budget has been a transparent and collaborative process that began in the fall of 2025. Throughout the year, the district held multiple work sessions, board discussions, community meetings, and presentations regarding budget priorities, compensation allotment guidelines, financial projections, and strategic initiatives. In addition, in addition, the district continues to gather community input through the district website and public The board adopted the tentative and tentative budget and tentative mill rate at the May board meeting. Tonight's hearing represents the second of two required public budget hearings. The budget hearings ensure transparency and community engagement before any budget is adopted. At this point, I will provide an overview of the district's tentative
005budget for the various operating funds, including school nutrition, special revenue, East Block, and the general fund. The school nutrition budget is the first of the four budgets and fiscal year 2027 tentative expenditures are approximately $4 million. The projected revenue is approximately $3.4 million, which which means the balance of the budget, the general fund must supplement the balance amount not to exceed 88 $881,361. If all of the supplement is not used, the funds will remain in the general fund. The school nutrition program is required to have a fund balance equivalent to a minimum of 3 months of operating revenue and expenditures, which equates to approximately $1 million. The school nutrition budget will be utilized to fund personnel, salary benefits, and operational costs for the school nutrition program. Special revenue fund is the second of the four
006budgets approved. The special revenue budget consists of grant funds not budgeted in the general fund. Grant funds are received primarily from the federal and state governments. The district is anticipating a minimum of approximately 2.5 $5 million in grant funds. The district receives state funds from the lottery for pre-K and federal funds for a variety of grants including title, IDEA, they are OTC, and Perkins. Grant funds can only be used for the specific purpose they were awarded and are budget neutral in that expenditures equal revenue. When expenditures do not equal revenues, the general fund supplements the difference as shown by the $336,340 transfer in for the pre-K program. Capital funds and E-SPLOST is the third of the four budgets the board approved. Capital funds consist of E-SPLOST funds received from the 1% sales tax for local
007purchases in DeKalb County. Total expenditures for fiscal year 2017, the E-SPLOST is projected at approximately $8.5 million. Total revenue is anticipated at $12 million, which consists of approximately $7 million from East Block, six from state, $100,000 from interest, and approximately $5.4 million from fiscal year 2016 projected ending fund balance. East Block funds can only be used for capital projects, textbooks, and band instruments. East Block funds cannot be used for personnel. The fourth and final budget the board approved is the general fund. The general fund is the district's primary and largest operating Major revenue sources are taxes and state funds. The local taxes are based on a 4% net tax increase from fiscal year 2016 and 20.30 millage rate, which remains the same as this year's millage rate. Local other consists of locally generated revenue such
008as tuition for the ECLC, tuition from non-resident K-5 students, facility rental, alcohol taxes, third-party sales. State revenue are funds received from the quality education program, also referred to as QBE. This revenue is based primarily on student enrollment and schedule. Total anticipated revenue for the fiscal year 2017 tentative budget is $113,285,775. Fiscal year 2017 expenditures are projected to be $120,101,821. Included in these expenditures are minimum of a 3% cost of living increase for all employees and any staff increase. Both salaries and operational expenses are included in this budget. Highlighted in yellow is the total revenue and total expenditures. Expenditures are approximately $6.7 million more than revenue, which means this amount will be need to be from the fund balance to balance the budget, as shown highlighted in blue at the table to the All The projected
009ending fund balance is $13.7 million highlighted in yellow on the table to the right. All right, that's 1.45% of the stimulus. Based on the millage rate of 20.30, board policy BCL requires a fund balance percentage between 4% and 15%. This slide reflects the district's millage rate history. The millage rate from 2016 to present in the last 11 years, the millage rate was eight at the lowest in 2016 through 2019 and 20 2020. Three. For the year 2017, the millage rate is 20.30. The millage rate fluctuates based on the economy and the needs of the district. This slide provides an early estimate of the potential impact on property owners based on a preliminary tax digest growth projection. Based on the millage rate of 20.30 and a tax digest growth of 4.99%, for property with a value
010of $600,000, this would increase property taxes annually by $304 as shown highlighted in green. This amount is calculated based on the assessed value, which is 50% of the actual value. Value, the amount is then multiplied by the millage rate, which gives you the school taxes per year before exemptions. The difference between the current value and projected value is the projected annual increase before exemptions, which is $304. For every $100,000 of property value, property owners will see an annual increase of $51. This is a consolidated overview of all district funds in the fiscal year 2017 adjusted budget. The total fiscal year 2017 budget for all funds is $134,679, $376,000. Fiscal year 2017 budget highlights are increasing employees health care and PRS dependent salaries for all employees, investment in early childhood education, tuition for non-resident students grade
011K through 5, stipends and signing bonuses for specified teachers and paraprofessionals, decrease of four central office staff and food service staff, pre-K specialist staff. The fiscal year 2017 budget is intentionally aligned with the district's strategic accelerators and the board's fiscal year 2017 adopted and approved budget priorities to ensure that financial resources directly support the district's long-term goals while maintaining fiscal responsibility. Next steps for the fiscal year 2017 budget, final approval of the budget will occur on June 2nd at the regular board meeting, three public military hearings two on June 11th at 11:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., and the third meeting on June 22nd at 5:00 p.m. followed by the final adoption of the property tax military at 5:25 p.m. The budget book will be pre- printed and available for public review by The budget feedback
012link remains an option for providing feedback. The link can be scanned using the bar code and it's located on the district's main finance website. This concludes the fiscal year 2017 budget hearing presentation. >> All right, we'll now move on to public comment. Any people signed up? >> Yes. The first person is Calvin Newsome. >> Hello. I guess y'all can hear me since you started the clock. Um so hey thanks for holding this meeting. Um my biggest concerns with the budget um are that the ECLC is still in it um but yet there's been no solid financing of the the uh project uh to include even hiring staff members for a building that's um years away from being completed um which seems pretty wild to me. Um you know it's where we have almost $1.3 million
013in between professional services and startup costs for the new ECLC in this budget and uh yet the project hasn't doesn't have any um financing approved. I also find it interesting that there's no debt services for FY 28. Um this is going back to the last May meeting um for like additional debt from a ECLC project. Um so I think that should probably be considered in our uh upcoming budgets especially um when we look at that uh the state of Georgia has a lot of politicians that have been talking about changing how we uh tax individuals whether it's income tax, property taxes. Um and I don't believe I've heard um a deep dive of how that would affect our revenue um in our district if those uh various tax policies got passed um and how that
014might uh affect our revenue base. So I think y'all should have a really uh a deep uh look into that and conversation about how that could affect us. Um let's see. Oh uh and then moving on to uh teacher pay. Um I mean I I think that educators educate children not buildings. Um so I think we should really look at not just giving a COLA increase but um actually give an increase on top of that 3% COLA. Um and then with the K2 court resurfacing um this is a small thing but I hope that when y'all resurface, if Westchester is one of those schools that's getting a new court, that y'all can level it. If you've been to that blacktop, depending on which end of the basketball court you're shooting on, you're either shooting on
01511-ft goal or probably a 9-ft goal cuz it's so slanted. So, it'd be great if y'all could level that out for us. That's all. Thanks. >> The next speaker is Elizabeth Robitaille. >> Hey everybody, can you hear me? Okay. Um, well, uh, building off of what Mr. Newsom said, um, I had similar questions about why the ECLC remains in the budget since it is currently not funded. Um, I also have questions or suggestions that we make sure that we are increasing our teacher pay. I know that we consistently say that because of how we do social security. However, teachers, um, our paras, all of our staff, have bills now that need to be paid so that they are not going into debt for future hoped-for gains. And finally, I believe that the City of Decatur
016schools have not done any professional development as related specifically to social studies, um, for several years. And I would, uh, suggest largely that we make sure that we are supporting our social studies teachers or any of our teachers who incorporate social studies, which includes our elementary K-35, especially with the Wit and Wisdom, and that we really focus our budget on improving, um, or keeping up with our teaching and learning. All right, thank you. >> Nope. New person. April Bejohni. >> Hi. Um I have a few questions uh for some of the fees associated. I'm curious. One, um I remember behind the last board meeting or something I remember there was talk of there's going to be special called um meeting to talk about the funding for the ECLC and I haven't seen that um announced
017anywhere, so I'm curious if the community still thinks that's going to happen. Um you know, CSD prides itself on academic excellence, but I think kind of teacher pay is essential to maintain that standard. Um so with rising cost of living here in Decatur in the metro area, um the board must address whether CSD salary still remains competitive with DeKalb, Atlanta Public Schools, and other surrounding districts. Um also curious about the superintendent hired to the school since um the transparency needed there from the community. I'm hoping that the board is going to request all of school accounting of all consultants engaged by the superintendent, including the scope of work, contract duration, and total compensation. Um also curious were these contracts brought before the board for approval and do they align with CSD's strategic priorities? Um and
018also are these duplicating work that could be done in house like our communications team? Also curious about um itemized breakdown of legal fees associated uh with our current representation. Um also wondering when the last time that has been reviewed by the board. Um and what the total amount spent to date is and if there's a spending cap and what the anticipated total cost and is it budgeted appropriately for FY2020? Thank you. >> Who? No one else? Well, okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Dr. Broom, for your presentation and thank you for attending the budget hearing. The board's next monthly meeting will be held on June 2nd at the Wilson Center. This meeting is adjourned at 11:36 a.m. Thank you very much.