The Lowndes County School District received good news from business officer and administrator Frances Goldmon during Monday night”s budget hearing for the upcoming year: No staff positions will be cut, and they”re in pretty good shape, financially.
After reviewing the $49.77 million budget — the largest portion of which will go to instruction — board members voted to table approving it until July 8 to allow time for public inspection and comment.
“We”re probably better in finance than we”ve been in a long time,” Goldmon told the board, adding that for a district of that size, “the debt is very low.” Projected debt service for the upcoming fiscal year, which begins July 1, is $2.14 million.
Goldmon anticipates the district will finish the year with a surplus of $774,083.41. The 2010-2011 budget projected a $3.53 million deficit, due primarily to a decrease in state funding, as well as expenditures on construction and facilities purchases.
The upcoming year”s budget allows for three new teachers at Caledonia Elementary School as well as the completion of construction projects at the central office and the Caledonia school campuses.
The central office is paving its parking lot as well as expanding to create a new boardroom, leaving the current boardroom available as a testing room.
Caledonia”s elementary, middle school, and high school will receive four new classrooms apiece, with a scheduled completion date at the end of July.
Goldmon said projected enrollment dropped by 175, with the bulk of the decrease occurring in New Hope and a slight enrollment increase in Caledonia. The district”s total enrollment in May was 4,999.
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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