Cash-strapped Dublin City Schools ends month with money in the bank

The Dublin City Schools’ finances continued to trend in a positive direction in April, finishing the month with a $725,000 balance in its general fund.

The system has struggled with a cashflow crisis, at one time facing a projected $13.4 million deficit, but stayed afloat with advances on its monthly allotments of funding from the state. As a result, the system received just more than $1,000 from the state in April, but took in $744,000 in local property tax collections, according to a monthly financial report approved last week by The Dublin City Board of Education.

The report, however, still reflects more than $6.3 million in liabilities which includes millions in past-due employer contributions still owed to the State Health Benefit Plan, after school officials skipped payments to the plan for a year. The district has begun making monthly payments on the debt.

Interim finance director Betty Corbitt said the school system has spent about $2.4 million less for the fiscal year than this same time last April. 

“Spending has been at an overall stop,” Corbitt said, with even minor expenditures requiring approval of four or five staffers. 

The school district began the current fiscal year last July with a $3.8 million deficit, although that was not publicly known until August, when state officials called the district out about the past-due benefit contributions. 

Also at the meeting, residents and some board members continued to protest the recent vote to move the alternative school from Moore Street to the high school campus, to make way for a new magnet school model of the Irish Gifted Academy.

Board member Kenny Walters voted no on approving the meeting’s agenda – normally a unanimous-vote formality – after he sent a late request for discussion of rescinding the Moore Street vote be added to the agenda, but it was not. Board Chairwoman Amanda Smith said she responded to Walter’s email, asking if he intended it for last week’s meeting, but did not hear back from him.

The board’s three black members have said they were blindsided by the Moore Street decision, which was made at a called meeting April 21. Both the magnet school and changes at Moore Street passed by 4-3 votes. Both items were discussed as having been recommended by state officials to address the district’s financial crisis.

The new magnet school would serve as a feeder program for the high school’s international baccalaureate program. Critics perceive it as a means of putting white, out-of-district students ahead of its predominately black student population.

About 90 percent of Dublin CIty’s students are black, while almost half of the approximately 300 students at IGA, which serves grades K-8, are white.

  Rae Bloodworth used her three minutes of alloted time during the meeting’s public comments period to stand in silence for the district’s students, teachers and staff members.

“Seems like no one is listening, so I’m just going to stand,” Bloodworth said.

The audience, along with board member JoAnna Glover, stood with her.

Another resident, Alfred Wheeler, suggested too many board decisions are being “made in secrecy.”

“It pains me to say we are losing faith and confidence in the board’s ability to do what’s right,” Wheeler said.

Courtney Coney, who has urged the board to consider using a zero-based budget to eliminate programs it cannot afford, addressed the strained relations between the board and the state Department of Education. She asked to board to have a contingency plan in place should the state refuse to advance QBE funding again, if needed, next school year.

In other business, the school board:

• Approved spending a total of $62,302.06 to complete the welding lab at Dublin High School. The money will come from special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) and Career, Technical, and Agricultural Education (CTAE) funds.

“That has been a very successful program for us and the kids,” said board member James Lanier.

• Approved a travel request to send 10-12 players and two coaches to the Battle at the Rock football camp for offensive linemen June 5-7 in Eatonton. The cost is $375 per player and will be paid from a football program account.

• Approved the following personnel actions:

– Resignations: Deric Thomas, paraprofessional, Dublin Middle School; Brittany Loftin, teacher and band director, DMS; Willie Batts, principal, DMS

– New hires: Venisha Reid, teacher, Susie Dasher Elementary (rescinding resignation); Melissa Glenn, paraprofessional (ESS position), DMS; Priscilla Walden, teacher, SDE; Tracy Stolze, assistant principal for instruction, Dublin High School; Suzanne Dukes, teacher, Irish Gifted Academy; Jar’Travious Wright, teacher, DMS; Jennifer Johnson, ESS paraprofessional, DMS

– Additional responsibilities: Cortez Chapman, head boys basketball coach; Dublin High

– Change in retirement date: Amy Dukes, director of human resources, Central Office, July 1, 2026 to Aug. 1, 2026

– Transfers: Joshua Smith, school food service worker, Dublin High, maintenance specialist.