The Gainesville City School Board held a first reading on the budget for fiscal year 2019 at their meeting Monday night, tentatively adopting the budget as presented.
After a review of the budget for FY18, Superintendent Jeremy Williams shared that a few things were new in the 2019 budget, including salary scale adjustments.
"The biggest difference is we made some cost-saving measures during the school year, so now that our revenues have caught up, we're able to add value to our budget in the area of personnel," said Williams after the meeting. "So when you're able to adjust the salary scales for your incoming teachers and you're able to add steps at the end of a career, it's a great way to improve and retain our staff. We've not been able to do that in the past. When you see the TRS (teacher retirement system) increasing by $1.7 million, the salary scales jump up a quarter of a million dollars, that's a huge commitment, but it's also one we're glad to make because we have a great staff."
The budget totaled $72,044,809, an increase of $1,158,157 from last year's budget, should the millage rate stay the same.
The equalization rating was also no longer in play for FY19.
The millage rate was also up for discussion. Should the millage rate stay the same at 6.850 mills, or change above a rollback of 6.599 mills to 6.725, it will be considered a tax increase and will have a series of public hearings. The first would be set for June 4 at 5 p.m.
Final hearing of the millage rate and the final adoption of the budget and millage rate is scheduled for June 18 at 6 and 6:30 p.m. respectively.
The presentation of the tentative budget and millage rate is available here.
