Coweta School Board approves 2021-22 Budget

From Coweta County Schools Press Release

The Coweta County Board of Education approved an operational budget of  $230,078,761 for the Coweta County School System’s 2021-2022 fiscal year (FY 2022), during a called meeting on Tuesday, June 22.

The tentative FY 2022 budget does not project an increase in the local property tax rate of 17.30 mills.  The Board of Education decreased the millage rate to 17.30 mills last year, from an 18.59 mill property tax rate which the board first set in 2004.

Information detailing revenues and expenditures in the school system’s FY 2022 budget can be found on the school system’s website at www.cowetaschools.net  (under District Information, click on the Budget, Financial, and SPLOST Info tab for “Budget Information – FY2022”).

Tuesday’s vote was the formal vote on the new year’s budget.  It follows budget workshops held by the school board in May, and tentative approval of the budget at the June 8 regular meeting.

The school system operates on a fiscal year that extends from July 1 until June 30 of the following year. The budget covers school system operations and other expenditures during the upcoming fiscal year. It is also based on revenue estimates including anticipated state educational funding during the upcoming year and local property tax revenue.

The FY 2022 budget approved Tuesday achieves several goals of the school board, including:

• Maintaining the current student calendar of 180 instructional days, and the current instructional program for students for the upcoming year.
• Establishing a 2 percent cost-of-living raise for personnel in the upcoming year, and passing on step increases for employees, where due, if approved by the state and according to salary schedules.
• Funding an anticipated increase in contributions to the state Teacher Retirement System (which is expected to rise from 19.06% to 19.81% in FY2022).
• Adding 11 teachers and school-based support personnel system-wide in FY 22.

The FY 2022 General Fund budget of $230 million is funded principally by state revenues and local property tax revenues. The budget approved Tuesday anticipates an overall increase in state funding during the coming fiscal year, and assumes maintenance of the current 17.30 mill local property tax rate with 3.5 percent in anticipated growth in the local tax digest.  The General Fund budget includes the largest portion of funding for instruction and pupil services, maintenance and operation of schools, transportation, and other operational costs.

In addition to the General Fund, there were three other components tentatively approved by the board as a part of its total FY 2022 budget.

These include $32,907,500 in expenditures from Special Revenue Funds, which account for special federal programs such as Title I, federal lunch programs, and IDEA.

Also included is $52,263,014 in expenditures from Capital Projects Funds, which accounts for construction and other capital expenditures during the year.  School construction is funded principally by revenues from the Educational Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (ESPLOST). The system also receives some state funding for construction.

Since the school system retired all outstanding bonds in 2013, no expenditures are required in the system’s Debt Service fund in FY 2022.

Those funds, combined with operations funds, total $315,249,275.  The new fiscal year’s budget  will take effect on July 1.

To see more budget information presented at two public budget workshops preceding Tuesday’s vote, go here. (www.cowetaschools.net, under “Budget, Financial and SPLOST Information).  The page provides links to current FY2022 revenue and expenditure detail, and also includes several years of school system budget information, millage history, tax digest information, school system annual audit reports and annual ESPLOST reports.

* A breakdown of the school system’s FY22 revenues and expenditures is attached in pdf format, and available in the links above.