Dublin school board to miss budget deadline, adopts spending resolution for July

The Dublin City Board of Education adopted a spending resolution Monday to cover operations in July because it will miss the deadline to formally approve a new budget,

Local school boards are required to adopt new budgets by July 1, before the new fiscal year begins. However, spending resolutions are allowed if a board cannot finalize a spending plan before June 30.

“We are finalizing some new positions that came in, so we want to make sure we are encompassing all the positions that will be in the school’s budget for the next year,” new Chief Financial Officer Teresa Seeley told the board. “It will be month to month. This can happen in situations where you have a lot of change.”

Spending resolutions must dictate exactly how much money a district can spend. Dublin City’s resolution allows the district to spend up to 1/12 of the final amended budget for all funds in the current fiscal year.

Seeley hinted at how the board plans to deal with expected cashflow shortages in the upcoming fiscal year, by obtaining a tax anticipation note, or TAN, a loan for the lean months until property tax revenue comes in next winter.

“We are working on our budget prudence in order to get a TAN,” she said.

Also Monday, the board approved its monthly financial report for May, which showed the district with a negative fund balance of $441,000. Seeley noted the system began the current fiscal year with a $3.9 million deficit.

“The school system is making financial progress, and thanks to strict budgeting we are spending less than we are bringing in. We’re working on erasing that large financial deficit from past years,” Seeley said.

The monthly balance sheet showed $1.7 million in cash and another $2.9 million in Georgia Fund 1, a high-yield investment pool offered by the state. Its total liabilities of $5.7 million includes almost $5.4 million still owed to the State Health Benefit Plan after not paying the plan for more than a year.

“Our assets are primarily cash, what we have in Capital City (Bank) and Georgia Fund 1,” Seeley explained. “Our liability is primarily payroll deductions that are owed to State Health.”

The investment funds will be transferred to Capital City ” to cover operations for the next month or two,” she said.

For the year, the district has spent less – $25.5 million – than it has received in revenue – $28.9 million, allowing it to cut into the $3.9 million deficit in which it started the fiscal year last July.

The largest expenditure by far has been on instruction. 

“We’ve managed our spending tightly across all departments,” said Seeley. “Our priority is the classroom comes first. We’ve spent $14.1 million directly on instruction and teacher salaries.”

The next largest year-to-date expenditures are in maintenance and operations, at $2.7 million, and in administration, at $2 million.

Last fall, after discovering the district owed more than $6 million in overdue payments to the State Health Benefit Plan, state officials had projected the system would end the current fiscal year June 30 with a $13.4 million deficit. 

“We are moving forward,” said board member Peggy Johnson. “I know there are people who don’t think so, but we are moving forward.”

Also Monday, the school board approved the following personnel changes:

• Resignations: Ariana Walker, teacher, Hillcrest Elementary School; John Robinson, teacher, Irish Gifted Academy; Christopher Cowart, assistant principal/school improvement specialist

• Retirement extension: Cathy Methvin, 21st Century Learning Center Program Director, Central Office

• New hires: JaQuerry Walker, teacher, Hillcrest; Semaj Nichole Sims, teacher, Hillcrest; Harley Barwick, teacher, Hillcrest; Marcy Hutcheson, accounting coordinator, Central Office