Board gives first okay to FY 17 budget for Hall County schools

The Hall County School District will have to dip into its general fund reserves in order to make sure all employees get a pay raise in the new fiscal year, but school board members think that's the right thing to do.

 

The board voted Monday night to give approval to a tentative budget for FY 17. Final approval will come at the end of June.

 

Superintendent Will Schofield issued an email statement Tuesday morning, saying the across-the-board pay hike is 2.5% on all scales and step raises.

 

"Bottom line: all employees will receive between 2.5 and 7.5% increases in compensation next year," Schofield wrote.  "Due to funding shortfalls at both the local and state level, this will require utilizing between $4 and $5 million of reserve funds." 

School system officials had expressed concern in the last couple of months that the tax digest had not rebounded sufficiently to allow for raises without dipping into the reserve fund. 

Schofield said via email, the final digest was up 1.54%, which he called "very disappointing."

"[The] County government digest, less the school exemptions, was up 2.16%.  This does not compare favorably to our neighbors and only represents about 6% coming back over the past 4 years. We lost about 20% during the downturn," Schofield wrote.

According to a budget adoption calendar released last week, there will be three public hearings on the budget, one on June 13 and two on June 27.