The Bulloch County Board of Education voted to approve a Tentative Fiscal Year 2025 Budget at its June 6 regular session.
The Board voted 6-0, with members Mims and Hill not present at the meeting. The Board is scheduled to vote on a final budget at its June 27 work session which will be held at 6:30 p.m., in the school district’s Central Office located at 150 Williams Road in Statesboro.
The meeting is open to the public, but work session meetings do not include a time for public participation on the agenda. The public may send additional comments to the board by email at boe@bullochschools.org.
The tentative budget includes total General Fund revenues of $149,101,046 and expenditures of $154,268,024, an excess of expenditures over revenues of over $5.166 million; however, this is in keeping with the Board’s five-year financial plan to gradually spend down its current projected overall fund balance of $49 million to the state recommended level of $30.8 million.
The fund balance rose in part due to the $38.44 million in federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds the school district received during the COVID 19 global pandemic. The purpose of these funds was to provide the school district with resources to help sustain its operations during the pandemic’s economic recovery. After initial distance and virtual learning, safety, health, and school meal needs were met during the pandemic, the school district has been further using the funds to support at-risk student populations, mental and physical health, supplemental learning to address learning loss, facilities and equipment, and continuity of core staff and services.
The Tentative Fiscal Year 2025 General Fund Budget includes salaries and benefits totaling some $135.7 million, which is more than 87% of the overall General Fund budget.
This year all employees, both certified and non-certified, will receive a raise to their base salaries. Certified employees will receive a $2,500 raise and non-certified employees will receive a 4.1% raise.
