2016
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A reader recently noted that our Fayette County Board of Education was going to spend over $450 million dollars as part of the FY 2025 budget. While the total receipts are planned to be almost $458 million when including carry over balances, the expected “general fund” expenditure is approximately $278 million.
To be clear, of the $458 million expended by the FCBOE, 60.7% is actually spent educating Fayette’s children. When you add the special revenue fund which is another thirty million which pays for special program such as nutritional programs and “Title 1 funding,” we almost get to seventy percent.
The remaining key spending buckets include debt service ($6.8 million), capital projects ($60.4 million), and internal service fund/Workman’s comp ($1.8 million).
First, it is important to note that governmental accounting is different than generally accepted accounting principles. “Funds” are used in governmental accounting, so that if money is left in a fund, it is carried over. This is like the “envelope method” some use in their personal finances.
For example, the “general fund” was expected to have a reserve of $23.8 million at the end of FY 24 and is expected to be $27.8 million at the end of FY 25. While our reserve is expected to grow four million dollars, its important to note that the administration chose to reduce seventy school-based positions in the same fiscal year.
Next, the capital project fund was expected to be $59.8 million at the end of fiscal 2024 and is projected to be $42.4 million at the end of the next fiscal year. These funds are restricted ESPLOST funds and cannot be used for classroom educational expenses.
However, while I am relieved that each high school will soon have its own tennis courts, it’s reasonable to wonder if any consideration is being given to stretch the reserves and delay another ESPLOST.
When I started studying educational costs in 2007, Fayette had no ESPLOST and no reserve. In the early 2020s, the State of Georgia recommended that FCBOE maintain a 10% reserve, which they did in one fell swoop by closing four schools and reducing teachers and parapros.
Since then, our bank balance has grown, even though our school resources (teachers/ parapros) have become less.
As our budget grows in dollars driven by ever rising salary and benefits costs, the question should be whether it is wise to continue making the reserve grow endlessly with the budget.
Reasonable people may wonder if they would rather keep their money instead of sending it to an FCBOE bank account. Others may wonder if it is better to fund our classrooms than grow our FCBOE cash reserve.
It’s important to note that this issue is not isolated to Fayette County. In neighboring Coweta County, their general fund budget is approximately $299 million with $43 million expected to be in reserve. Alternatively, Clayton County expects to spend over $675 million on a school system with more pupils than Fayette and Coweta combined. For information and just as concerning, the Clayton school budget does not demonstrate any projected reserve.
Looking back at Fayette, the 2015 financial statements show that we spent approximately $222 million with another $75 million in reserves, both operating and capital (ESPLOST) for a total combined spend of almost $300 million.
Ten years later, our budgeted spending plan is more than fifty percent larger, while our student population is nearly the same, with 20,042 in 2015 and 20,063 in 2023.
Meanwhile, our class sizes are larger, and our school resources are less. As we evaluate school board candidates this fall, we need to find a plan to support our students and teachers in the classroom within the constraints of the revenue restriction voted by the taxpayers.
[Neil Sullivan is a finance/accounting executive and CPA. He has lived in Peachtree City over 20 years with his wife Jennifer, a Fayette County History teacher and son Jackson, a student at Erskine College. He has been active in public school related issues in Fayette County, leading three E-SPLOST initiatives as chairman of Fayette Citizens for Children. He has appeared previously on these pages in letters to the editor.]
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