The Fayette County School System is in the midst of a declining student population, but it nevertheless is preparing to hire 65 new employees. The system wanted 90.
The expenditure side of the budget, if approved by the school board next month, includes a 2 percent cost of living raise for all salaried employees totaling $2.475 million and a possible total of 90.4 new staff positions.
Of the 90 new positions, 64.4 of those were approved by the school board Monday night. Those positions included teachers and parapros at the county’s elementary, middle and high schools. The positions were added to reduce class sizes and to keep those sizes below the state class-size waiver level.
The remaining 26 positions which will be discussed in June include 14 proposed elementary school secretaries, four high school assistant principals along with data collection, media support, IT and support teacher job slots.
The four assistant principals were eliminated from all high schools except McIntosh several years ago. The position at McIntosh was not removed because the school serves the largest number of students.
Deputy Superintendent Sam Sweat in commenting on the need for the assistant principals said the principals at the high schools noted that they are struggling with increasing numbers of requirements in areas such as testing.
“My concern is what happens if we don’t add those positions back,” said Superintendent Jody Barrow.
The FY2016 budget for the Fayette County School System continues to grow as the time for its approval draws to a close. Set to be approved in June, what was a potential $175 million budget for FY 2016 is now $184.7 million and there is still a month to go before its adoption.
When it comes to the revenue side of the budget, the good news is that the county’s tax digest appears to be on the verge of a 10 percent increase over last year. And a 10 percent increase would, along with state funds, would put total revenues at $180.5 million. Of that amount, nearly $90 million would come from state funds while a nearly equal amount would come from local property taxes, auto taxes, one-time vehicle ad valorem taxes and other sources.
When it comes to expenditures, the proposal is to spend $184.7 million, with the difference between expenses and revenues being made up by using $4.2 million in fund balance that will be left from the FY 2015 budget that ends June 30.
The proposed budget also includes $18.4 million in reserves.
Budget talks will continue in June and the FY 2016 budget will be adopted later that month.
