Graduation is nearing, which means summertime business is on the horizon for the Gainesville City School Board. That includes the yearly update to the school system's budget and millage rate.
At a work session this past Monday, the board heard from Finance Director Kathy Pethel on the plan for the upcoming budget hearings.
The hearings are tentatively planned for June 14 and June 21. More details will be announced at the next board meeting on May 17.
"Hopefully by the end of June we'll have a budget and a millage rate we can move forward on," said Superintendent Jeremy Williams.
The budget requires three hearings, and even if the millage rate is not rolled back, there can be a requirement for hearings should there be the possibility of a tax increase. Typically, the school system combines both hearings into three meetings, instead of five potential meetings.
"All we're doing right now is looking to see how this year's budget turned out compared to how we planned it. It's looking really positive, it's looking really good, but at the same time we have to go into next year still cautious because we're not fully out of a pandemic yet," said Williams. "We don't know what additional costs will have to come in, what additional personnel we may or may not need. We were down about 250 students this school year compared to what was anticipated so that definitely had an impact on the funds we received for next year from the state."
Williams said system officials and the school board are going into the budgeting process with the understanding they may have less revenue in some areas, but that students will still need the best services possible, and that, he said, was no different from year to year.
