Bibb County School District exploring options to avert potential budget deficit
The District developed a strategic plan based on feedback from community stakeholders to determine what necessities need to be prioritized.
MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — The Bibb County Board of Education is looking to the future of finances in the school district. As the Board prepares to finalize its budget for Fiscal Year 2024, it is looking at ways to increase revenue and reduce spending to avoid a deficit in the coming years.
With emergency federal funding coming to an end and the costs of goods and services on the rise, the District is facing the threat of a budget deficit by the year 2027 if they don’t take action now.
According to Chief Financial Officer, Sharon Roberts, the District is exploring every possible solution to prevent a deficit from happening.
“We are looking at all options to make sure that does not happen in that year,” Roberts said. “So we’re looking at all of our programs, all of our schools, we’re looking at our revenue options.”
While the proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024 shows positive trends of salary increases and rising enrollment rates, Board member Daryl Morton says the Board of Education has started collecting data to determine what necessities must be prioritized in the coming years.
“What’s the immediate impact on our budget or reserve right now? The budget that I’ve seen does not include any sort of tax increase. Given the reserves we have, we can handle that in this budget,” said Morton. “The question is; what do you do moving forward?”
Some of the challenges the District faces include under-enrolled schools, meaning less state funding and higher operating costs. Another factor is difficulty recruiting and retaining certified teachers due to lower salaries than surrounding districts.
Board Treasurer, Kristin Hanlon, says the Board will be implementing a five year strategic plan with the goal of maximizing opportunities for students while maintaining financial stability.
“A lot of our decisions for spending in the next five years will be driven by the needs associated with that plan,” she said.
The plan was developed with feedback from parents and students, as well as businesses and leaders in the community. Some potential solutions for the deficit include consolidating schools, rezoning, cutting staff positions and raising taxes.
“Things will happen, decisions will need to be made, but it’s way too premature to talk about what those decisions would be,” Hanlon said.
Sharon Rogers says the top priority now is to reduce current expenditures, and she considers raising taxes as a last resort. She says the Board will form a committee to examine the options and present proposals once the Fiscal Year 2024 Budget is finalized.
“We are excited about our new strategic plan,” said Roberts. “We are excited that our budget is geared to our goals for our new strategic plan and that we are looking forward to the next year.”
The final Proposal will go before the Board on June 15th and that meeting begins at 6:30 PM at the School District’s Professional Learning Center in Macon.
You can find a brief of the the Recommended 2024 Budget here: https://www.smore.com/sdk37-the-board-brief and the full Recommended Budget here: https://cdnsm5-ss19.sharpschool.com/UserFiles/Servers/Server_1736137/File/News/FY%202024%20Recommended%20Budget_Telegraph_Final.pdf
