Cordele —
The action was taken at a regular board meeting Tuesday. The vote was 4-0 with one member absent.
According to the tax digest, keeping the millage rate the same will net approximately $20,000 less for the school system than last year.
Board chair Jill McDuffie noted the school system experienced deep cuts in funding from the state last year.
“While we expect those cuts to continue and possibly go deeper during the current school year, we believe the superintendent (SteveSmith) and his administration are doing a great job,” McDuffie said.
“Our school system is financially sound,and we appreciate Mr. Smith’s broad financial, managerial and educational expertise.”
“We have been very blessed this year, and our cash position is in pretty good shape,” Smith acknowledged in the meeting.
“We have budgeted for additional cuts in state funding for this school year, and we are aware of a potential $1 billion shortfall in state funds for the entire state next school year. On a local level, we will continue to evaluate every expenditure very closely, and we will do everything in our power to build reserves in order to weather this continued economic downturn. My goal is to give serious consideration to a millage rate reduction in August 2013 if we have adequate reserves. However, tax rates should not be reduced until our teachers are no longer furloughed and receive the raises they deserve.”
Wilcox County Schools recently adopted a $12.3 million consolidated budget. The general fund budget recently adopted amounted to $8.8 million of that total. The general fund budget has been slashed from $10.3 million in FY09 to $9.2 million in FY10 and now $8.8 million in FY11.
Smith stated, “We have had a number of employees retire over the past two years, and we have only replaced those where we felt we had no choice. We continue to be concerned over rising class sizes, and we will try to minimize the effect on instruction and learning.”
Wilcox County Schools is the largest employer in the county, with 169 full-time and 9 part-time employees. Last school year, the school system employed 180 full-time and 6 part-time employees. The total payroll for the school system exceeded $9 million last year.
One mill of tax will bring in approximately $142,257 to the school system this school year, down from $143,596 last year.
In the near future, Wilcox County Commissioners should be setting the millage rate for the county, which was 18.25 last year.
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