GAINESVILLE - A $62.1 million budget for the upcoming year for Gainesville City Schools restores the full calendar and adds some employees to the payroll, but the school system's Chief Financial Officer cautions that the school board still needs to be careful with its money.<br />
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Janet Allison presented the tentative budget ($62,140,824) to the Gainesville School board at a Monday night work session. Allison told board members the proposal included the restoration of some austerity cuts from the state. Plus, she said she was hopeful that the tax digest would see a modest increase.<br />
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Those factors allowed budget writers to add 10 days to the upcoming school calendar, meaning the Gainesville system will operate on a full calendar in 2014-15.<br />
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"We're also going to have 20 new instructional positions, one speech and language pathologist position and two new bus drivers," said Allison.<br />
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While the news is promising, Allison cautioned that the budget, as proposed, will still require the system to pull some money from a reserve fund.<br />
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"Even without the new positions, we'd be tapping our reserve by $2 million - a little over $2 millon, actually," said Allison. "But, we're tapping it right now in this budget at 3.7 million."<br />
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The budget is based on the city's current millage rate, according to Allison.<br />
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Final adoption of the budget is scheduled for the board's June 16 meeting, although by law the budget does not have to have final approval until June 30.<br />
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Residents can view a copy of the proposed budget on the Gainesville City Schools web site by the end of the week.
