001Good evening. Good evening and welcome to the special call board meeting uh on Wednesday, June 25th, 2025 uh for the adoption of the FY26 budget and millage rate. Uh I will first uh ask that if this uh meeting has been posted and I sure it has, if we all would please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Uh Denise, are you in the phone? Yes. Okay, I'm here. All right. Uh okay, I'll accept a motion to approve the agenda. So move. All in favor? Uh announcements. Denise, please say yes. Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh announcements. Um district closure July 4th holiday in recognition of Independence
002Day. All district facilities will be closed from Tuesday, July 1st through Friday, July 4th. Uh facilities will reopen on Monday, July 7th. Our July board meeting, the regular meeting of the board will be held at 2 PM on July 9th uh here at the Whitney Administrative Complex. Uh the board will also meet for an informal meeting on July 9th starting at 11 a.m. Okay. I will now accept a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. moved and seconded. Uh, all in favor? Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Jackson, going into the agenda items. I believe the first agenda item is the campus campus police interront transfer. Okay. The current police radios and mobile data terminals are approaching end of life cycle. Continued maintenance upgrades and repairs are expected to incur significant costs due to agent
003hardware and limited support. Additionally, as the district transitions into the new 911 center, the existing equipment will not be compatible with the advanced software and communication systems in use. The current transfers is being done to upgrade new radios and MDTs align with current emergency communication technology standards and will significantly enhance officers response capabilities. Officers will receive dispatches directly through their MDTs allowing access to real-time data and critical information necessary to for effective and timely response. Wherever the new systems will ensure interoperability with partner public safety agencies including fire, MMS, police and emergency management. The consist consistency across agencies will improve the efficiency and effectiveness across agency communications and coordination during emergencies. Approval of this upgrade is essential to ensure seamless inter integration with the 911 center, maintain public safety records, and support our officers with
004the tools they need to protect our schools and community. Staff now request the following budget transfers and amendment to provide funding for the FY25 FY26 school year in the amount of 618,000. Thus, be resolved upon the recommendation that the board approve the budget transfer and budget amendment in the amount of $618,000 as detailed. I'll accept a motion to it's been moved. Moved and seconded. Any discussion? Yes, Miss Miss Hall. Will there be training necessary to um implement these these new pieces of equipment or uh yes, and is there a cost with that? Thank Thank you, Miss Hall. that will be training uh on all the equipment um all the new equipment is it's more updated uh equipment more modern and it aligns with all the different all the seven municipalities communication equipment throughout the county
005so we'll be trained on the same same equipment is the cost for the training part of this cost it is it is included yes ma'am all right thank you anyone else there being no more discussion uh all in favor Perfect. Continue. Okay. I believe the next item is the strategic funding teacher grant. Yes, sir. Okay. Thank you. The teacher supply grant budget is designed to provide 2700 ed educators with $500 financial support for purchasing essential classroom materials and instructional resources. This budget allows teachers to acquire items such as educational supplies, teaching aids, student learning tools, and other materials to enhance classroom instruction and support student engagement. The goal of the grant is to reduce the outfpocket expenses teachers often incur and ensure all students have access to highquality learning environments. Expenditures must align with district
006guidelines and directly support curriculum delivery and classroom activity. staff requests the following budget transfers and amendment to provide funding for a one-time expenditure to support district classroom teachers and their work towards strategic priorities. Thus be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the budget transfer and budget amendment to cover the strategic funding teacher grant in the amount of $1,350,000. It's been moved and seconded. Any discussion? Yes, Dr. Howard Hall. I just like to say that I'm pleased to see this grant. Um, as a former teacher, I understand the how we use our out-of- pocket expenses. Um, when I was a former teacher, Dollar Tree was my best friend. Um, many times when we go into schools and we see the bulletin boards, go walk in the classrooms or in the halls,
007we don't realize that many of times those teachers actually purchase those items out of pocket. Schools typically supply bulletin board paper, construction paper, markers, stapers, things such as that. But when it comes to being creative, teachers use their personal expenses. And it's good to see that they will be getting $500 to assist with them in the classroom to alleviate a financial burden. So, thank you for that. Paul, um I think I mentioned this or asked Dr. Watts, do we have a mechanism in place for the processing of this that um will keep the integrity of the program intact? Absolutely. We are very aware of the fact that we need to ensure that the money is going to its intended use and so we have a committee that's working together um of how we can operationalize
008this in a way that does that. Don't have it yet but we will have it by the beginning of the school year. M Dr. Ringman I mean Dr. Howard Halls, a former teacher, said it more eloquently than I will, but um I will say thank you on behalf of all the teachers out there um that have to post a GoFundMe two weeks before school starts because they need that new rug for their kindergarten class. Um so, thank you. Um and I'm sure um you will get many thanks from the teachers that um you are helping to make classrooms better for each and every one of their students. Okay, there being no more discussion, uh, all in favor. Okay, thank you. Okay, item 6.03. This is just a contract renewal for eight agencies that support our
009speech, language pathology, and school psychology services. Thus be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board approve the renewal of contracts issued under RFP 24-18 speech language pathology and school psychology services annual contract to the firms listed above for an additional one-year period with one additional one-year renewal remaining for an estimated cost of 1,586,00055. All terms and conditions of the initial contract will remain the same. It's been moved and seconded. Uh any discussion? Dr. Bringman. Um is this because we can't get enough speech language pathologists on staff? Correct. Okay. Um or speech language pathologist like assistance. Okay. um would like to work in the upcoming year on like a proposal with Georgia Southern and their speech language pathology program to figure out how we might create Yeah, we there's always 5,000 things
010in the frying pan. Um a meeting with Georgia Southern within the next month so I can put that on the agenda. Okay. Yes, that sounds great because I I believe we might be able to I know we can't offset every speech language pathologist that we need, but we might be able to create some consortium that would help um both students at the university there, but also the needs um for our students as well. Thank you, m Miss Hall. So, Dr. watch these persons would come into our schools. Um and it it's decided which schools which students. Yes. I think I will defer to um Mr. Butler to give the details. Yes. So those services are both uh virtual uh and some are provided in person as well and it's on an as needed basis based
011on our those students that uh with the identified services. Anyone else? All right, there being no more discussion, all in favor I and before we go to item 6.04, adoption of the fiscal year 2026 budget, we're going to have a short um PowerPoint presentation. Good evening again. We're going to go over a general fund budget update. 2026 budget adjustments, proposed roll back rate, and other adjustments. On our June 4th tenative um tenative budget adoption, we proposed 17.481 481 mills. We are proposing at this time tonight a a 0.15 mil roll back and reducing the millage rate to 17.331 mills. As you can see from the chart, we have the estimated local revenues. Um they've gone down a little bit. Um the revenues because of course we if we reduce the budget that will reduce the
012revenues. I mean if we reduce the mill rate it will reduce some of our revenues and our local revenues. Um some of the changes to our expenditures are shown on the chart. Uh there was a re adjustment in the charter school allocation with more up-to-date information. Um we added back five counselors in the enrollment staffing variance um which made up that difference. We increased our vacancy factor from 10 million to 13.3 million and we kept the use of fund balance the same. On this chart right here, we are just showing the SEC PSS millage rate and how it has gone down from fiscal year 20 at 18.881. And for fiscal year next year that starts on July 1st, uh we're proposing a 17.331 mill which is a 0.15 mil roll back which I stated which
013is going to be a reduction of about $2.8 million to our local tax revenue. Um slide five right here is included in the um is here to show the collection rates for fiscal year 23 and 24. for fiscal year 22. Um, excuse me, for fiscal year 23 and fiscal year 22, not 24. For fiscal year 22, we collected 99% of the total projected revenue budget. For fiscal year 23, we collected 100% of the total projected budget because of the influx of a delinquent property tax collection due to the aggressive strategies of the tax commissioner's office. On slide six, we're showing the collections of 104% of the total projected budget for fiscal year 24. This was due to the unexpected increase of delinquent tax collections. That was part of the governor's homeowners tax relief grant that
014we didn't know that the governor was going to give us more money back on that. That was a very nice surprise. Um, and this year we're so far at 90% of the total projected revenue budget for fiscal year 25 as of April. This slide shows you our general fund for forecasted revenues. Our general fund revenue revenues total 654.6 million. Um, this is an increase of 35.1 million. of that. The local makes up 26.1 million of it and the state makes up 9 million. We have not projected a federal increase because that is such an uncertain number. So, we've left it the same as this year. This slide shows us all of the different forecasted expenditures we have on here. Um, and I've just highlighted some of the things that changed from the tenative uh budget
015adoption back on June 5th. Um, so we our total comes to the $654.6 million, which is the $26.8 million expenditure increase in the general fund. This slide right here says up here, this is actually should say all funds salary and benefits at the top. I want to please note that that was that's should say all funds salary and benefits. is not our general funds. Um, for fiscal year 25, this is all funds, not just the general fund, but all of our grants and other funds. We have a total of $59.1 million for this year. Um, central office this year makes up 6% of the of of our um salaries and benefits and the school sites make up 79%. For next year's budget, all funds are $666.7 million in salaries and benefits, and the central office
016makes up 3.8% for next year's budget, and the school sites make up 82.9% of the budget. Expenditure reductions for the central office. Um the central office has cut $ 122.3 million out of its budget from this year to our next fiscal year. Um these reductions represent cost savings at the district level. Throughout the budget process, uh much deliberation was given to understand the potential impact on those drivers. Historical accounting of actual spending was looked at, the length of time we had vacancies um that had been open and unfilled. um data was reviewed to justify continued investments. The fiscical year 26 reduction comes primarily from the reduction in professional development cost and travel for C the central division closing positions that were open for more than 8 to 12 months, consolidating staff positions and reducing equipment,
017materials, and supply cost. In fiscal year 25, this the one we're currently in. Um, this past year, we redu the reduction represented in the 25 district reorg included 6.8 million in savings. The net reduction in the adopted budget totaled $816,000 reduction after all positions were accounted for to include the addition of 24 school counselor positions. This graph just shows us um our vacancy factor. Um, back in fiscal year 22, we had 20 $20 million that was put in fund balance due to vacancies. And we had accounted at 6.5 million and we've kind of increased it every year or we've tried to and for next year we're proposing going up with our vacancy factor to 22.4 million. And Larry Jackson will come up and speak to this. Thank you. Let me just talk briefly about projected
018fund balance and fund balance contribution. Um as of June 1st we've estimated about six% of the total expenditure budget uh will be left that will be a contribution to fund balance. Um we still have some expenditures for the month of June, July. Um that will be part of the FY25 budget. However, the there you previously approved some items that came out of that number. Police radios, the teacher grants, maintenance equipment, and the transportation equipment. But as we look at where we think we're going to be at the end of the year, and when we say the end of the year, we're actually talking the end of September once we finish all of the collections and all of the expenditures. Um, last year we finished with a fund balance of about 235 million. There are some
019items that the board um took action on to take funds out of fund balance. the FY25 FY25 projected contribution to fund balance as of today it's about 32 million give or take about $5 million we believe it's going to be um a little less than that and we're projecting to use about $1.9 million for net share FY26 budget so that will put our projected unassigned fund balance at the end of net share at about $186 million when we look at the proposed budget of $654 million. The lines below um puts us above the twopoint board required minimum of $19 million is a difference of about $76.9 million. When we look at the three-month target where we try to be 3 months is right at 163.6 million. So we will be end up a little above
020that $22.4 million. So that puts us about three and a half months, which is not too bad off target then, but we're way below the five months maximum according to B board policy of the $272 million and we're $86 million away from that target. Next, Mr. Hediger is going to come talk about budget survey results that went out to the public. Thank you, Mr. Jackson. As we take an opportunity to share with the board some of our work to engage the public, we did have a survey that was available for a number of weeks in the month of May, May 9th through May 30th. This was sent directly to all of our parents through our parent communication system. Also posted on the district website and shared through social medias. Uh you'll see that we did
021get um a response that was certainly overwhelmingly from parents in this particular survey. Uh 676 responses here in this title that replied. uh 81% of them were from our families. Uh we did have the uh next level that came in from employees that also uh participated in our survey. Uh what we asked them was what motivates you to be engaged in the budget process and you'll see that the majority did say creating a high quality school system, educational system. Uh low uh interestingly on the rate here and talking about the millage rate. uh mill rate obviously being a big driver as one of the revenue funds and revenue components of our budget but you'll see in this particular response out of the 617 only 8% rated that uh as an item that would motivate them
022to be participating in the budget process we did have a number of components and you'll remember back when we did budget finance committee meetings when we did updates to the board in April and May we had a host of priorities that we were looking at obviously as we go through the budget process. There's a bit of a narrowing there. So, some of the things that you see on the screen uh were from those early indicators when we were talking about what matters. You will see though the very important and the extremely important responses are overwhelmingly strong in the areas of student achievement and growth. uh you do see the items that how are included in this budget uh that you do have high support for the high dosage tutoring, the differentiated school supports and of
023course the expansion of early childhood education. When you move into priority goal two, uh we did talk and screen the uh students or the families of course of the district and the staff of the district. I do remember this was discussed in our professional senate as well about providing supports for outreach and engagement and also to improve and enhance tools on our website. Uh you'll see that the very important and extremely important lines uh certainly do uh come in high here in this particular area and uh this does represent a portion of the budget. uh small however uh but we do believe that we're going to get some good return on investment as we move forward in our work to engage in outreach. This is the area where you saw the responses that really had
024an overwhelmingly strong extremely important component and this is that area of the budget when we talk about investing in our people. 5,600 individuals that are the employees of Savannah Chattam County Public School System. Uh you'll see here that uh those respondents here in this particular question uh extremely important the highest is that cost of living adjustment. We have that included in this budget and the 3% cost of living adjustment. Uh you'll see that that is supported by the survey respondents that replied here. The other thing that's important to note is this budget also represents a large investment in the work that we're doing through the compensation plan and the compensation study. That has been a priority of the superintendent since she came and uh hit the ground two years ago. Uh to look at the
025district's compensation and look at how competitive we are with other markets regionally and nationally to attract the very best and hit our goals and the strategic plan to recruit and retain. You'll see that the employee compensation, that's the scale adjustments, was the second area that came in as far as the highest responses for extremely important ratings. Finally, as we look at our strategic priority four, uh we did see a very strong under the very important components for adding custodial staff. Really two areas of focus. You remember we have talked a lot about supporting our pools and creating those additional enrichment opportunities for our students. Uh but in this budget, you'll see that the support for custodial staff uh was very strong obviously and it is represented with additional 10 positions uh in this budget. So
026the other area that we found very intriguing we wanted to share with the board is a prioritization of those survey respondents. What do they think is most important in the planning of this budget? Well, you'll see that the majority believe that it is a balance of the millage rate and addressing the needs of the district, the operations of the district that really stresses the priorities that you just saw uh rated in this particular survey. the straight prioritization of just the millage rate alone uh fell in a very low response rate here. So the highest response rate is the balance of the millage rate uh while also addressing funding needs to accomplish strategic priorities. We do want to remind as we move forward to close the presentation that this budget represents a number of things. You
027heard the superintendent talk about that as we opened up the millage rate hearing, the third and final hearing. as we get ready now to make this recommendation on the FY26 budget and ultimately the millage rate as well. Uh this budget represents an investment in our students, an investment in our staff and also when you really start looking at these numbers, you do see a thoughtful approach to a reduction in uh expenditures. Uh you'll see that with a $12 million reduction represented in this budget from central office reductions. Uh in many ways that's a carryover from the work that we began last year when we did a district reorganization. Uh this is also less dependent in this initial pass with where we currently stand on how we use the fund balance to balance the budget. Uh
028that is a big part of our work and trying to ensure you heard Mr. Jackson talk about where we are as far as it relates to policy components on the two-month, the three-month and the fivemonth on that fund balance reserve. very important that we're able to maintain those monies in case we have to make corrections that we can't account for right now in the forward future look. So, a number of things that have been represented and we thought that the survey data supported a lot of the work that you see that is forthcoming in this uh budget recommendation. I'm going to finally turn over the slides to our deputy superintendent uh Stacy Taylor to talk to you about a strategic shift in our work in budgeting. Good evening and thank you. I will briefly walk
029you through how we're shifting towards a more strategic budgeting process, one that aligns every dollar with impact and accountability. Over the past year, we've laid the groundwork to make return on investment ROI a core part of our budget decision-making process. We began by developing a district-wide program inventory to better understand where our dollars are going. Using a start, stop, and continue framework, we identified programs for further review and establish a baseline to assess impact. This process revealed gaps, including missing me metrics and misalignment between some investments and student outcomes. In response, we used ROI to inform this year's budget planning process. We've also launched a ROI dashboard to track program cost and impact as well as initiated program evaluations and implementation studies. We also are committed to an annual program evaluation cycle. Together, these actions
030help us build the infrastructure for a more strategic and datainformed budget decision-making moving forward. As we shift towards strategic budgeting, we're also strengthening how we monitor financial performance throughout the year. I'll advance the slide. We will establish mid-year checkpoints to assess spending and impact before the year ends, giving us the ability to be agile and adjust, redirect, or reinforce investments as needed. This proactive approach fosters cross departmental collaboration around what's working and what needs attention. We will also amplify our real-time budget monitoring through monthly expenditure tracking. This enables us to spot trends, identify understspending or overages early, and make more informed decisions supporting proactive rather than reactive resource management. To complement our internal work, we've partnered with a third party to strengthen our stewardship strategy. Their role is to help us build stronger forecasting tools
031and enhance our ability to model multi-year financial scenarios. Their analysis will provide both short and long long-term recommendations to support fiscal sustainability and operational alignment. They will help us identify risks, inefficiencies, and opportunities within our financial operations, identifying areas where deeper analysis or targeted implementation is needed. This reinforces our commitment to increase fiscal stewardship and make responsible budget decisions. Okay, Dr. Dr. Brman, you got to be fast on the draw, right? There you go. Somebody else might say brilliant things and then you're like, ditto. So, um, plenty to say. uh ROI inventory. I I can't be more excited about this and I believe next year's finance committee meetings that unfortunately were poorly attended and I will have my squeaky wheel same pull string that I say every year uh we get lots of engagement the
032last budget hearing of every year and I would love to look at uh Miss Smith's data weeks ago and the other individual who who left things for us weeks ago I would love for them to have contacted any of us, their board member or any other board member during the school year to help us make this budget that then has to be paid for by a millage rate. Um, so I I will ask like I have for the last couple years, please engage with us throughout the year. We have a few citizens that do, not many. We could have more. um that doesn't mean you're going to get your way. We don't get our way, but it helps us have a dialogue. Um so I look forward to the return on investment, inventory, that transparency
033in what we are spending our money on and is it actually moving the needle and then if it isn't allowing the district staff to say give it one more year or don't. Um, and I look forward to having that external forensic financial look through redesigning that to make sure we actually are budgeting appropriately, utilizing all of our resources appropriately. Um, and holding everybody down the line accountable in their own separate accounts. Um, I also, as as some one of the citizens brought up earlier, I look forward to voting in November for the Chattam County Tax Relief Act because next year this will be a moot conversation because if we were to maintain our millillage the same, every tax payer in Chattam County, if that passes, would remain the same. So, there wouldn't be this concern
034um because you would have a set and the individuals on fixed incomes would have a set. It's going to be that and it's going to stay that. It's not changing. So, I really do like that legislation um and look forward to that coming through because it's going to really change the course of of our budget cycle um and be a lot easier for citizens to understand. So, um again, I have really enjoyed the process this year on the finance committee of building the budget. It's been super thoughtful, um super engaging. I think almost every single finance committee meeting we had every board member here and they're not all members of the finance committee but but they they they made the time to get here. Um and I believe the district has been able to create
035a budget that really speaks to most of everything that we've pitched. Okay. Um we got lots of things we can work on um moving forward and next budget cycle. I really hope it is driven by these ROIs. Um, and it's literally that's a red flag. It's gone board. Boom. Or that worked. There's, as we like to say it, the secret sauce. Let's redirect funding. Um, I think it's going to be a heck of a lot easier process for us, for the district, and for the community to understand why that money is moving from place to place. So, thank you for letting me speak for way too long. Um, yeah, Dr. Hoskins Brown, thank you. Um, I really appreciate the um the comments by Mrs. Taylor on the strengthen financial oversight because that's kind of where
036I found some challenges in the budget. I'm supportive of the budget that we're looking at, but there there's terminology that we're using around savings that I've shared with the superintendent that really aren't savings. Um, if I find $20 in the washing machine at my house, it's not found money. Somebody had plans for that $20. It's just now my $20 because I found it, but it's not a new $20. So, when we find savings in our budget because somebody didn't spend some money, what that says to me is that somebody didn't execute a budget aligned directive. Something was supposed to be done that didn't get done. Um, and I think that unfortunately we're that's happening more than we are detecting and the superintendent has committed I think by by way of the conversations that develop this
037return on investment and the structures that you're putting together is to find that because in in the worst case scenarios people hoard money by rolling it over every year. I'm just going to put it in this place. Nobody's going to notice it. I didn't spend it. By the time they see I didn't spend it, it's budget time again and we're going to roll it over and that money could be working um for us. So, I think that's problematic and I'm looking for this accountability structure such that it will allow us to really see how dollars are being used. It will frustrate budget unit heads that are accustomed to being able to hide money and it'll make things like the $500 grant for teachers unnecessary because there'll be money in their schools. I do believe that
038there is sightbased funding that's not being spent the way people need it and teachers are spending their own money unnecessarily. that there's fundraising happening for auxiliaries and other groups that doesn't have to happen because the money is sitting somewhere from an allowable funding source. So, I um I'm glad to see the um the efficiencies that we're seeing. I think we're going to find more. Um, I don't think cutting unspent is savings, but I think it does lend itself to us administering better and tightening how we supervise how money is spent. We've talked, we haven't talked about it, but we've looked at that through our audit process. Um, tomorrow we have an audit committee meeting. If you just don't have enough meetings to go to, come to that. And one of the things that uh is
039being reported on is increased grants oversight for grants that are over $5,000. Um and increasing monitoring controls over expenditures so that we know where that money is going. And I'm going to I'm going to be like you, David. I'm going to talk long um but hopefully not circle back around. Um, I I think that there are others who feel probably more strongly than I do that parts of our budget that don't get spent get treated like a savings account. We'll just have that next year because it's unspent and that's not good stewardship. So, I'm really happy for this part of the presentation because it addresses a lot of the things that I was concerned about um with the budget um as a whole. Thank you, Mr. Hall. Could we go back to the fund balance
040page for a moment? Um, basically I just want to say that I'm very happy with the three and a half month. I think that is robust enough so that any huge problems that we might come up um against that we would be in a position to move forward without um panic. Uh five months. Yeah, that to me that would be way over the top. But I think three and a half months um because it's not for any weeny things that we look to the fund balance. This would be for huge strategic things that we would have to do sometimes at a moment's notice. And to me a three and a half month cushion um puts us about right. um on the return on investment. Um I noticed that we're liking to say that it sounds,
041you know, very progressive and you know, we're really on our jobs, but I also going forward want us to look at what those investments are, do the analyzing of the investment before deciding if it's the return on the investment that we're just caught up with. For instance, if I as a taxpayer feel that I want higher teacher quality, which means that I have to be able to provide my teachers with more training. Um, I don't want any schools to have teachers who still just have bachelor's degrees. I want every teacher to have at least a master's degree. Is that an investment that we're making? and then we're going to look at the return on that investment or does that investment never even come up in discussion? So, I'd like us going forward, like I said,
042not tonight, but going forward into the next year to really look at what our investments are and then decide, okay, are we getting a good return on what they are. Thank you, M. Campbell. So, I agree. I love the ROIs that are going to be coming in. I love that we'll be able to make cuts that are surgical and distinct and we know exactly what we're cutting. Um, where do I start here? So, the the gap approved amount is two to three months, right? And we have three and a half months. So, I'm going to make one more public push here for the fact that we actually can utilize the the surplus from last year to help cover the cost for the taxpayer and do a full roll back. So, it is frustrating. Um, as
043I look here, I have a question about this PowerPoint, but on slide three, it says that our June 25 proposed estimated expenditure increase now is 26,000 or excuse me, 26.8 8 million. So I don't see if we have three and a half months why we couldn't cover that amount if the state is covering the rest beyond the fact that we had a $32 million surplus last year and we're asking for million this year. Like what's happening? I um the question that I had on slide 10 and I think there was discussion about this before the meeting but I don't I don't understand this. You said that it represents all funds the all fund salaries and benefits. That is correct. It should be all funds um salaries and benefits. We didn't realize until um earlier today
044that we intended to do just a general fund, but some we ended up with all funds which included grants and um salaries that are in some of the special revenue funds and salaries that are in capital projects even for FY25. Yes. That represents all funds as well. Yes. So, we've gone up $150 million. That's it's a good question and we want to verify what's included in the FY number because we think something it's not I don't believe it's apples to apples when we were trying to put this chart together to answer your question. Okay. So, we're going to correct this chart and send this back out to the board, but we're going to change the chart and just do the journ. So, so that that is an error, right? Because if if I look at
045So, last year we asked for 626 million. Um 509.8 mill, excuse me, 59.2 million ends up being roughly like what 80 to 85%. which makes sense because we say 85% of our budget is people. So, and if we include the other funds, you're probably right. It should be. So, I think that I just want to validate it. Okay. All right. Um I'll wait and let some more people talk and then share some Dr. Howard Hall. Yes. My I have a concern regarding vacancies. Um there are several strategies that schools use for vacancies. Either they hire substitute teacher or they use the collapsed class model or the combo model. Um, when I think about the vacancies that we had, for example, we have a high poverty, low performing middle school that went an entire year with
046three ELA vacancies. That's a concern for me. We also had schools throughout the district that had vacancies throughout the year in band course, music, PE, art. That's a concern. And I'll just give one more example and that's a high school, a high poverty high school. They had a vacancy this one particular school in business, history, science, Spanish, RP English, and three sped positions. Right now, regarding next year, the vacancy factor is is at $22 million. And I don't think we should be relying on vacancies as a budgeting strategy because it's it's a risk. It is. And what we're doing, we are compromising the quality of education for our students when we do that. So, we really do need to do a better job with filling these vacancies. Yes. Because that low performing school deserve to
047have those ELA teachers and they didn't. And to know that we're actually predicting a $22 million budget for vacancies next year is a problem for me. Well, mine is related to the unanticipated, unplanned issues, and I think Mr. Hediger tried to refer to it, but you know, there are problems that we've talked about over the course of this year that haven't manifested in this budget. And that's that's always the case. There are always things that don't find their way on here. And I don't know when these persistent problems are going to appear, but I feel like we're going to see them. We have this budget. We still haven't fixed our transportation problem. We have this budget. We haven't fixed our vacancy problem. And I think our vacancy problem is pretty pronounced. Even some of our
048solutions for how we're addressing vacancies in some of our programs, the whole strategy is around using temps. Um, which doesn't do our young people the service that Dr. Howard Hall mentioned. We haven't addressed and our part of our transportation problem is a bus driver problem, but we haven't addressed other things like we haven't done anything with middle school athletics. We haven't done anything with those fields and the issues that we talked about earlier. And so I think that I understand the the importance and the need to acknowledge our collections and that's why I'm supportive um of a partial roll back. Um but I think there are other issues that we are going to face that we haven't been able to address and I do not want to exhaust our fund balance to do it. So
049if that means the return on investment allows us to find money that's not being used properly, cool. let's address let's use it to address that problem. Um otherwise it means we are going to have to make hard decisions and put things on the chopping block that have not been on the chopping block yet. Um because we are living closer to our budget. That's the thing. When you live close to your budget and I'm a I am a fan of it. I'm a fan of the direction that we're moving in with our budget. But when you live closer to your budget, that means you're no longer as self-insuring. When the pandemic came, we didn't have to wait on anything from the federal or state government because we had it. And when ESSER funds came, we reimbursed
050ourselves for our spending from ESSER funds because we already had it. When we had major hurricanes hit, we already had the money for technology. We had been smart enough to plan for it in East Blast, but we also had money available in fund balance. I'm a homeowner. I get it. Taxes are going up and I am supportive of a roll back. I also think we need to be aware of conditions that we cannot anticipate and know that as we get closer and closer to our three-month level in our fund balance that the ability to self-insure that we have had in the past, we are not going to continue to have and we need to be ready in the next two or three years to make very hard decisions with our budget because we're not going
051to be able to approach them the same way that we have done historically. And that means people are going to not have something or people who are people are going to be upset. So um words matter. Um, I the fact that we're using the phrase roll back is a little bit concerning for me because when I hear roll back, what roll back means to me is a homeowner would not be paying as much. not they're going to be paying more but less of more. So unless you do a full roll back, it's not a roll back, it's a reduction. So um that's I just just wanted to throw that out there. So all right, continue, Mr. Jackson. Okay. Um now we'll move on to the agenda item 6.0. 04. No, we have we haven't voted.
052Miss Graowski. All right. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um, so I wanted to just make a couple of comments reflecting on um what some of the board members have said. Um, I appreciate Dr. Howard Hall's comments about the vacancy rate and yeah position is is simply that it's temporary. We've had a lot of discussions about ways to improve our teacher recruitment and retention. But we still have a long ways to go. Um, and we know that we are getting ready to get additional information about our fiscal processes and procedures that I think will be extremely informative. Um, and just like this budget is using data from our compensation study to make informed decisions, I think that as the work continues on the ROI, as we get more information about the fiscal work
053that's being done, it will also help to continue to inform our decision-m process. So, I think that um I like the direction that we are heading in. Absolutely. But I think that we need to be that information and also continue to be forward thinking. Dr. Watts and her team have accomplished a lot in her time here. There's still much work to be done. As was commented earlier, we still have six I think it was Dr. Hoskins Brown commenting on transportation. Um we still have these other things that we also need to address. And so I just think we need to be very mindful of not only what's um represented here but the continuing work that is to come and the expenditure increases that we see in this budget. You know 60% of those are state
054mandates um from teacher retirement, state health insurance and personnel step increases. The sign significant portion of the budget increases are also from the increases as a result of our compensation study which we know are absolutely critical to be able to recruit and retrain I'm sorry recruit and retain the best and the brightest. And I know that Miss Campbell made the comment about this is a one-time increase. And I guess maybe this is a question for her. These are adjustments that will be forward. These are forward moving adjustments. So the adjustment is made now, but that expense in that salary is going to continue. And so I don't see it as a one-time adjustment and that's I think where my comment was to you earlier, Miss Campbell, about when you and I were having some discussion
055about this. Um, so that's that's it for now. Thank you, Miss Campbell. Um, thanks for the question, uh, Miss Grai. So, the reason I see it as a one-time adjustment is I see it as a onetime lump sum because we're putting money in in a large, you know, quantity in order to sort of equalize based on what I've understood. So, now going forward, yes, will some things be more as people progress through the steps? Yes. but not that we will ever have to pay upfront to equalize salaries or compensation again to this degree. This was to get us on track with where we want to be. And that was my understanding. Please tell me if I'm wrong, but I think that the so if if we have someone that right now is making 60 and
056with this adjustment in this budget, they go to 65, they're going to continue to be at 65 from this point forward. So that number is going to stay. That differential is going to stay is that sure. Yeah. And that's why I guess that's why I don't see it as the one time if that Dr. Bman Yeah. because the millillage is attached to the budget and the way we write it and and I want to thank the superintendent and the district for presenting a slight reduction. Um and I know we've all had multiple conversations with everybody over the last week since our last hearings. Excuse me. Um, I was aware that that the super pitched um another number um and that would definitely change the budget number. I was just wondering if I could get maybe
057a a elevator pitch on where if we had a larger reduction than the 0.15 that is presented right here, where that money was coming out of the budget. So, I kind of just would understand where where the district was coming from because um and and thank you. I can see you nodding. Um, I see myself in this position as somebody that will make sure that the money is spent appropriately, that we are transparent as how it is spent, um, that it is spent fairly. Um but it is for the super and the district staff really in conjunction with us to build the budget and then to say we believe as a team that this budget can be funded by this millillage and if the finance department and the superintendent and other district staff can tell
058me that they're good with that then I'm gonna have to go out and say I'm good with them as well. Um, so I was just wondering if I could get that elevator pitch because if you pitched it, I would hope that you were at least comfortable, maybe not confidently comfortable, but comfortable in pitching it to see where that that where that funding come came from. And I hope I I feel like I'm on the right track. Okay. Um, another option, even though we're not there yet. Um, if we I feel like we are because the number is embedded in the first thing that we pass. Right. Right. Does that make sense? That's why I I I kind of was going to hold but because the millage is in this. Yeah. So they it's like two
059eggs but Yeah. Yeah. We're proposing right now.15. Um, as I talked to the superintendent and the other chiefs, I could live with a 0.25. And I think that's probably what was put out there. A 25 would require another 0.25 0.25 I'm sorry. Yes. 025. Um that'll take the use of fund balance and that's where it would come from. The use of fund balance from $1.9 million to $4.1 million. And I can live with that 943 to $4.103. So, and and tell me if I'm wrong on page 15 then where we had the target three months at 163 million and then we were going to have that difference of 22 million. Correct. Right. Right. That's just going to cut out 3 million of that down to correct to 18. So, we're still going to be uh
060rough math 30% past 3 months. Correct. Okay. Um and and that was not pitched because it was pitched now. Relief pitcher bring in the lefty. Um because we didn't feel that there was the support or or I I mean I I we're supposed to have difficult conversations. That's why we got elected. Um so I would love to hear what other board members think. Um I that number the difference and I I fully understand where Miss Hall talked about liking the three and a half months. Dr. Hoskins Brown made great points about how we were able to pivot very quickly because we had a healthy fund balance. Um and I don't ever want to be back where Dr. Howard Hall and I were the first meeting we were on. We got to vote to have a
061tax anticipation notice so we could make payroll. So we've come really really far in seven years. I don't ever want to get back there. Um, but I don't know how far I am comfortable being above that three-month line. Um, and if it's coming out of that 3-month line, and that's where it's coming out of, you know, that 22 and we're going from my rough math was like 41% down to I I don't know if it would be like 38 36%. I don't know. I'd have to do some quick math here. Um, I would like to if other board members are comfortable talking about why that wouldn't be something they could support. Um, but don't feel obligated by any means. Uh, Dr. Huskins Brown, then Miss Hall. So the challenge I have with the suggestion is
062that this is another year where we're doing some napkin math when we spent six months working on finance. So to me when we spend all of this time and we have a cabinet working on recommendations and they bring it forward and the superintendent brings it forward and we have three hearings. I'm always happy to entertain another discussion that has the district accountable, but when we get back of the envelope, hey, let's just spitball this right now kind of discussions at a meeting, they seem inspired something other than higher learning for all children prepared to be successful, productive citizens. And that makes me very uncomfortable for people who hold me accountable to think I'm swayed by something other than good thinking and good logic. Um, I've already said what I've had to say about the about
063the fund balance. I am concerned about what the next 18 to 24 months looks like because we're passing our budget now. The federal budget still has not been passed and we still haven't gone through a lot of the other issues that we're going to go through as a community before the first day of school. We have buildings that have issues. We have challenges that we are facing. I would like to face those challenges with something other than a spitball number. So, I mean, I I just we've done it that way before and I roll with it, but I I just I'm not doing spitball numbers this year. I'd rather delay and have another meeting, but I'm not going I'm not going to do nap I'm not doing napkin math this year. And and I fully
064agree and I've used that term as well. Um that's why I didn't think it was napkin math when it was pitched by the district to some degree. This is not napkin math. I mean to some extent we are predicting because we don't we're not for sure but there is I think there is a strong confidence that um what the number that was pitched can be done. It's just an issue of to your point unknown risks and how far into the fund balance do we want to go? Last year we went 8 point something million into the fund balance and everybody was okay with that. Everybody voted for it. Okay. Everybody voted for it. Right. So this year going 4 million into the fund balance is viable. I mean, it's not to me um an un
065un um it's not a an extremely risky proposition because we're already this would still keep us at 3 months plus. Why were we talking about 0.1 if the number was 0.25? Okay, hang on. Uh, Miss Hall first. Um, did you did Miss Campbell let me go first? Oh, I'm sorry. So, okay, Miss Campbell. No, I I agree with this conversation, which is why, and this isn't to throw shade to anybody. This is to say this is why I tried to have this conversation via email as well and tried to cultivate conversation because when we had the last hearing or the last meeting and I think there was shock that some of us didn't vote for the final number. It wasn't that we didn't vote for certain initiatives that we thought would be great. We we
066did think that they would be great, but had I known a bottom dollar number, it would have been much easier for me to say, "Hey, you know what? I really like the idea of APS, but if we're hiring APS as glorified hall monitors, maybe we could, I don't know, pick a robust behavioral policy first and see if maybe that could do something about it." And then I would say, "Okay, maybe next year when we can afford it, we'll look into that." The problem then becomes though, I think, that we don't ever get that bottom dollar. And we shouldn't be waiting for the tax digest to come out to determine what we can take from the community. We should have a bottom dollar that we say this is the bare minimum it is going to take
067us. And I don't mean reading, writing, arithmetic only. I do think that should be our focus. But I believe that it should be the minimum amount that we need to do what we're doing now within reason, particularly after ROIs come back in and etc, etc. More cuts are made. And I think that we could then have this live number that rolls forward throughout the year now that we've gotten much better at the budget process. We do this stuff earlier in the year. Dr. Watts and her team have been excellent at showing us these things transparency, excuse me, transparently behind the scenes. I am not trying to denigrate that work whatsoever. It has been phenomenal. But we could do that with the bottom number and then we could all say we could weigh the pros and
068cons of is this a want or a need? Is it blue sky thinking or is this something that's really going to benefit children in our district? Because I think like Mr. Brantley said from the chamber earlier, everybody is hurting right now. I have parents on excuse me. I have parents on a fixed income. People feel the weight of this. This is not a political stunt. I wanted to amend this. I was going to motion to amend because it has been ridiculous the lack of conversation that I have been able to get on anything other than 0.15. We can do better. We can do this better. If there was 0.25 25 that was an option, we should have hashed it out behind the scenes. If it was 0.5 that was an option, we should have hashed
069it out even if it wasn't public facing and then we could get here and we could we could show the community that we are being good stewards. It's just frustrating to me that we treat public education like, you know, the parents that take care of these children aren't also suffering from the constraints that the tax burden we keep putting on them year after year is having. So, I am with Dr. Hoskins Brown on this point. I think that we should start having these conversations earlier where we're not doing napkin math and we should know real real numbers real you know roll back you know because again I I did the work I sent it to everyone no one engaged one person did actually Miss Kowski and some people engaged me on the phone but and
070that's okay it's it's not again to it's just it's I'm learning this too as a new board member but I would love a little transparency from all involved as I figure this out. But if I come up with something that I think is viable, I would like to have it proven to me that it isn't, especially if there are other options on the table that aren't even been being introduced that provide more tax relief. Miss Hall, um I was one of the board members who didn't miss a meeting of the finance committee. I don't care what time of day it was, when it was, I was here. And that was the time as an August body for us to have these discussions from A to Z. We did this for months and now here we
071are at the midnight hour and we're casting dispersions on, you know, why we're not willing to engage more and it's time for us to vote. The national government is too volatile right now as far as I'm concerned for us to inch away at our fund balance. We don't know what those grants are going to look like when we finally get them. And yes, I was here prior to the pandemic and all. And we were able to breathe relief because we knew that our students were not going to have to suffer when CO took over this country. I will not vote to nibble away at our fund balance because we're able to see a few million dollars difference now because over the long term I'm a fixed income person. But my job, my stewardship is to
072make sure that nothing goes wrong with these kids' education as they try to move forward. And that's what the fund balance is for. So let's bring all these great wonderful ideas to the next year's meetings. Let's let's start having these discussions in October and November and December so we don't get to June and decide at this point that it's time for us to engage because it's too late Dr. bring me. We've engaged and the finance committee has created a budget alongside all the other board members and the district staff that I believe most of us support. What we're discussing right now changes nothing that we've added or subtracted from that budget that impacts students. The thing we're discussing is how much above three months of fund balance do we want to have unmarked I'm sorry,
073unearmarked money for our worst rainy day. Um, and I understand and completely can see where you're coming from on wanting more or less. And that is just how different people feel on the side of how much money you need to make sure that when bad things happen, you can you can deal with them. Um, so fully understand where you're coming from completely, Miss Hall, but I feel like we've worked pretty well at building a budget. I really did. I thought it was a successful year of building a budget. Now we're just discussing I feel and that's just me feeling that we're discussing one area of that budget that yeah, we probably, you know what, we need to discuss it more. So, it's already on my to-do list in finance committee a lot earlier is we
074probably need to decide as a board where we all sit on how much fund balance is enough fund balance and that's what this conversation has I have gleaned from this conversation is where do the nine of us I mean somebody a long time ago I don't know if it's a state law to have the fivemon cap um but discussed this and said we're never going that high we better be above this. Um, but I think that can be a conversation that's going to have to happen down the road and I look forward to it. Mr. Catchmark. Um, it's like Groundhog Day. Uh, every every year we have the same conversation and the nashing of teeth about we need to do our process different. Part of the challenge is we don't know until early to mid
075June what the tax digest is, what the state mandated adjustments are, um how much we have to pay into TRS, um how much we have to pay in salary adjustments. Part of the budget here, it's 11.9 million in state mandates that we have no control over. sometime in May or June, we just get a sheet from the state that says, "Here are your adjustments, and then we need to figure that out." My I've told Dr. Watts um that I'm not supporting this budget proposal, and I've told her why, and I've mentioned many of those reasons during our budget meetings, during our finance committee meetings. The struggle I have is this. Um, I've been on the board a long time and I am thrilled and excited about the direction we're headed, about the effort that Dr.
076Watts and um, leadership have put in to a more streamlined, efficient, thoughtful analytical process. I agree with the vast majority of the priorities that are mentioned. And you know, I've been sitting here listening. We're there's a lot of discussion about puts and takes. If we spend this, we have to take from that. I look at it at I I know we're all going to have various opinions on that. But at a macro level, every June, I say to Mr. Jackson, when are we going to do a final reconciliation of our funds so we know actually what our revenue and expenditures were for last fiscal year? And we get that information in the third quarter. But our budget cycle ends a lot earlier. So really what needs to happen from a process standpoint is we do
077our budget after we do a final reconciliation and we do what the state of Georgia does which is a mid-year reconciliation. Um and we don't do that. Um the ROI process that we're looking at um I saw the midyear check-ins. That's kind of what we're where we're going. And the struggle I have with not supporting this budget proposal is I respect the work. I respect the thought process. It's not an indictment on the process or the thinking, but several priorities that this board has focused on over the last two years, solving transportation, teacher recruitment and retention. Um, we can have all the money in the world, but if we can't pay our teachers and our staff enough to stay here, then nothing's going to be achieved. And I I live in the private sector. I
078run a business. Um, our biggest increase in our budget in the last 10 years is people. And it's because we have to be competitive. The reason we have vacancies is because we're not as competitive as we could be. When the economy is good, when logistics sector is booming, private industry pays more than the public sector. And we have a bunch of people sitting in this room in leadership roles who could be making double what they're making here working at a Fortune 1000 company doing the same thing they're doing here. Um, but they stay here either because they're they don't want to move. I don't like moving either. Or they believe in public education. They believe in giving back to the community. You know, I look at our our ongoing issues in our facilities department um
079a lot. It's not because of effort or focus or drive. It's there's a shortage of program managers u because the private sector is swallowing them up. Transportation problems. It's logistics um folks who are taking all of our CDL drivers and that's why we have transportation problems. So on the one hand, the community tells us solve these problems, but really the way to solve the problem is is you pay people more and you hold them accountable and you hire good people. Um, and there's a dilemma there because 85 to 90% of our budget is people. Um, so I I really struggle with not supporting the budget, but at the end of the day, for the last five or six years, I've gone back and looked, we've had 20 to 50 million in excess fund balance or
080in a positive number when we've done our final budget reconciliation. And I I think the derision of the napkin math is towards me because I've used that phrase the last two or three times. We've had a final bo vote on a budget and and it is back of the napkin math only in the sense of trying to figure out uh what a 1 mil or a half mill is in real dollars given this year's budget. But the bottom line is we're not talking about anything in the budget other than if we increase a reduction in the millage rate it will reduce the estimated balance in the fund balance. That's it. So if one mill is $1.8 million and our our over threemonth excess is $22 million, it's 22 - 11.8 or whatever it is. That's
081all we're talking about. So um I I I struggle because the uh in Dr. Brman's leadership of the finance committee, the work of staff, the work of the superintendent is fantastic. I applaud it. I appreciate it. There's still a lot of extra money there. And there has been every single year I've asked a question about reconciliation and I think we can cut more. Mr. Smith, I will be very expeditious in my remarks. Uh as I look over this budget over and over again, I see that uh we are striving with everything in us to uh to have a competitive teacher salary to attract and to retain uh good and great educators. I see that we're attempting to prepare or to uh provide livable wages for all of our staff members. I see that we are
082giving attention to safe safer schools uh with equipping them and training them as officers. I see that we're giving uh attention to pools to teach essential life skills. I see that we're giving attention and time and funds and resources to tutoring to support uh the students uh and their success. I understand and I believe that this is a very very large budget but this large budget re reflects the large task that's before us and while it is not perfect this budget nor this uh millage rate that we have currently it is not the perfect or the ideal position or situation. It positions us uh to meet today's needs as well as to invest in tomorrow's potential. uh our goal to serve children in this community as well as to listen to our uh constituents and
083to be mindful of our taxpayers. All of these things are on the table and and it will never be perfect. It will never be perfect. But as we look across the years, each year recently, there has been a decrease. And as time goes on, we have to stand on the fact that we're in a political season where we don't know what tomorrow's going to bring. We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know what's going to come, what new pipelines are going to come. And I'd rather us be safe than to be sorry by cutting ourselves too close uh to our uh budget lines. Uh, so I understand everything that's going on and I I I I you know agree with everyone's uh feelings and emotions, but we're not going to be able to
084achieve a perfect miller rate, nor will we be able to achieve a perfect budget. But I do believe that we put ourselves in a good position if we stay where we are at this moment. So that's my two cents or two mills if that makes sense. So, as board members, approving the budget is, you know, one of our top things, right? Um, I said this to the board members earlier and I'm going to say it to the public. Um, I'm very proud of this board. I'm very proud of the people on this board. We work very well together. We disagree a lot, but we work very well together. One thing I will never ever do is question the motives of people on this board. Everyone on this board is dedicated to educating children. And again,
085everyone on this board is totally dedicated to educating children. Now, I am the person that harps on the public coming and sharing with us your thoughts. I will always do that and I will say this again. and others have said it. Our board members, our board members, our our our board times are are posted. We need you here all the time. Now, part two, we do hear you. And where I'm torn right now I want to know when will we ever give you guys a real roll back if not today. I mean I you know I've I've been I've been here this is my third year. I under when I hear you guys talk about being on fixed incomes, but it's not just fixed incomes. It's renters. It's and it it it is our parents.
086I hear that. And we have to do this Libraesque kind of balancing act here of how do we effectively serve the public and effectively educate our kids while being fiscally responsible. You know, yes, we have challenges, but guess what? I know that everyone in this community is having challenges. The economy is not the best. There's a lot of question marks out there. So, when I hear you when I hear the public say, you know, I I can't afford to stay in my house, I know that that's a reality. I know that there are people who bought their who bought their house for $165,000 and now it's worth $400,000 and but they're not making that kind of money. So they're having to pay the taxes on $400,000 and they don't have it. So I hear that
087You know, I'm I'm probably not going to vote for this because I unless we have a a full roll back, but and and that hurts. We've we we've got to do better. And again, that's me. That is just me. And that does not mean that my opinion is more is better than anyone sitting up here. I want that to be understood. But that's that's where I that's where that's right. Okay. Um I think it's time. Yes. And just a logistical uh question. You know these numbers, this is a table that can be generated. You know, to Miss Campbell's point, if we know what it is that is being proposed for the total budget, and once we get the revenues that we received, then there can be a table that says, well, if you do this
088roll back, this is what the budget can be. If you do this roll back, this is what the budget can be. And we never we've never done that. We come with with one number rather than a table of numbers. give me a menu and show me what is being affected by the menu. Um the the other thing I just want to add to this discussion is is a question that I will need answered for future discussions is that we're talking about the the difference in the millage rate only as it affects the fund balance. I'm open to cuts all across the budget. Somebody stood here and told us Miss Miss Smith, Mrs. Smith told us there were 36 positions and now those administrative positions are 137. There's lots of places to cut. The dissension here
089is not about cutting. The dissension here is where the money comes from for the cut. And although we have tried this for years and years, even back when Mr. Catchmar, Mrs. Wade, and I all sat down and and it was the same concern that that was articulated at that time. Let's see the whole budget. Let's go through the whole budget. And that year, we did that. We met for coffee and we went through the entire budget book looking at everything, looking for everything and opportunities to cut. And we we're not doing that now. And so part of the concern that I have is I don't have any problem cutting, but you're not telling me what you're cutting except the savings account. And then the first AC system that goes out, the first roof that needs
090to be replaced earlier than it should have been, then we have issues that we can't address because we didn't identify anything else that needed to be cut. That's the kind of information I need. So I don't want people to leave this conversation thinking, "Oh, this person just wants to be in our pockets." No, I want all the information and I want to make surgical like cuts and be very very aware that whatever we approve, I know what the effect is down the line of the budget. And the other thing is we always talk about the budget first and then approve the millage rate. Right. Right. And year after year we've said, "Oh, well, why don't we talk about the millage rate first and then shape our budget based on how much we get from the
091millage rate we can agree on." And I don't know why we don't do that, but we don't do it. Um, and that's another reason that you're now having folks saying, "I can't vote on this budget because the budget is hinging on a millage rate that they don't agree with rather than talking about a millage rate earlier, agreeing on a millage rate earlier, building a budget to fit that millage rate." But I don't have a solution, but I just want to point those problems out. Um, before I read the agenda item, I just want to put out three points. Food for thought. Dr. Bringman hit it right on the head. Come November, there's something that we're going to vote on that will basically change this whole process. Um, secondly, um, so when you talk about a
092roll back, the roll back rate would be a lot smaller than the amounts that we're seeing now. second thing. But the third thing is that's most concerning is when they put that cap on how much property taxes can increase, it's going to reduce our potentially reduce our income, property tax income by more than half of what we're getting now, not 2/3. So think about that going into the future. The only additional income we get from property taxes would be a little bit from um new residential properties and commercial properties. But that loss in revenue that we're going to see and districts across the state is going to see, it's going to be alarming. And when you compare that to what we could or used to be doing, giving people in raises, we won't be able
093to do that anymore. So just food for thought. you think about that as we move forward into next year's budget process. So to the agenda item, item 6.04, adoption of the fiscal year 2026 budgets for all funds in accordance with law and policy. Staff presents the fiscal year 2026 budgets for all funds. This budget consists of five components. The general fund budget, general obligation debt budget, special revenue funds budget, capital projects funds budget, and other funds budget. The final budget under consideration reflects a.15 mil decrease. That's what it should read. For a total combined millage rate of 17.331 mills, 17.331 mills for maintenance and operations and zero mil for general obligation bond debt. General fund budget. The fiscal year 2026 general fund budgeted expenditures and other uses total 656 million639,339. This budget will receive $438,111,5
094in revenues from local revenue, $215,284,590 in state revenues, and $1.3 million in federal revenues, and a use of fund balance of 1,943,744. [Music] The estimated advalorum tax millage rate for calendar year 2025 is 17.331 mil. The advalorum tax revenues were calculated using an estimated adjusted net M and O digest of 23 billion90,52,259 for calendar year 2025. General obligation debt budget. The fiscal year 2026 general obligation debt budgeted expenditures total $270,000. This the estimated advalorum tax military rate for calendar year 2025 is zero mills. The advalorum tax revenues were calculated using an estimated net bond digest of 26 billion 93,292 for calendar year 2025. Special revenue funds budgets. The fiscal year 2026 special revenue funds budgeted expenditures and other uses total $118,495,597. The budgets are listed in the chart below. Other funds budget the fiscal year
0952026. Other funds budgeted expenditures are $3,760,17 and the following funds are included in this budget. Debt service, workers compensation, unemployment, and the employee dental plan. Capital projects funds. The fiscal year 2026 capital projects fund budgeted expenditures total 162,123,459. This budget is based upon estimated cost to be incurred between July 1st, 2025 and June 30th, 2026 for approved projects. Thus be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of education finally adopt the following budgets. Fiscal year 2026. Fiscal year 2026. General fund budget for 656,639,339. General obligation but budget debt budget of $0. Special revenue funds budget of 117 million $10,973. Other funds budgets for $3,760,17 and the 2026 capital projects funds budget of $162,123,459. Been moved and seconded. Um discussion. All right. All in favor? I. All opposed. Item 6 05. Hang on.
096Hang on. I'm sorry. Technologies got to catch up. Okay. All right. Calendar year 2025, fiscal year 2026, final recommended tax mileage millage levy. Under Georgia law, the board of public education for the city of Savannah and the county of Chadam is a recommending authority that exercises the power to cause the levying authority, the Chattam County Commission to levy property taxes to carry out the purposes of the board of education. In accordance with law and policy, it is necessary for the board to adopt the recommended calendar year 2025 mill rates for both maintenance and operation and general obligation bond indebtedness and their corresponding levies on taxable property. The calendar year 2025 minutes rates used in the projection of revenues for the fiscal year 2026 budget are 17.331 mills for maintenance and operations and 0 mil for
097general obligation debt for a combined millage rate of 17.331 mills. The proposed millage rate for maintenance and operation is not in compliance with the rollback rate calculated by the tax assessor as required by OCGA48-5-32.1 and as such will be required to be advertised as a tax increase of 3% above the rollback rate. Final adoption of these millage rates is required at this time to meet statutory timelines for millage adoption. Accordingly, staff proposes these millage rates be adopted. Thus be resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that the board of public education for the city of Savannah and the county of Chadam as provided by law does hereby recommend to the Chattam County commissioners and its official judges thereof that there be levid upon the dollar of all taxable property in Chattam County, Georgia a general
098fund tax of 17.331 mills. a general obligation bond debt tax of zero mills and an aggregate millage rate of 17.331 mills in year of 2025 for the support and maintenance of public education and the staff directed to advertise such millage rates as required by law. Been seconded. Any discussion? Dr. Brinkman. Yes. I would uh like to offer an amendment to change the 17 the proposed aggregate mill rate of 17.331 to 17.231 as was discussed uh previously. Do I have a second? Okay. Moved and seconded. Um any more discussion? All in favor? Uh against. Yes. Right. That is it. I'm sorry. Okay. So, all in favor of read the motion as originally read. Thank you. The motion as will you will you read it again please? Okay. Be it resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent
099that the board of public education for the city of Savannah and the county of Chadam as provided by law does hereby recommend to the Chattam County Commissioners and its official judges thereof that they there be levied upon the dollar of all taxable property in Chattam County, Georgia, a general fund tax of 17.331 mills, a general obligation bond debt tax of zero mills, and an aggregate millage rate of 17.331 mills in the year of 2025 for the support and maintenance of public education and the staff directed to advertise such miller rates as required by law. All right. Now all in favor I was already all in favor I all against All right. Thank you for uh there's been a motion to adjurnn. Second. All in favor? Thank you all for coming out.