Dr. Jan Harris (right), Superintendent of Schools, explains budget concerns to a rare and coveted member of the public--the only one who showed up at any of the three public hearings required by law.
The parallel but separate budget/millage rate processes for Dade County and the Dade Board of Education culminated Thursday in three brief meetings in which the BOE approved its fiscal 2018 millage rate and the Dade County Commission gave its formal blessing and agreed to collect the taxes generated by the rate.
First, at 5:30 p.m., the B of E held the last of three required public hearings on the millage rate. Though the school board, like the county commission, did not raise its millage, or taxation rate, but kept it constant at 15.509, growth in property values means that the schools--also like the commission--expect to collect slightly more in tax revenues in FY2018 than this year, enough to trigger the state requirement for public hearings.
One solitary member of the public showed up at the Aug. 10 hearing--one more than at the previous two--but did not speak, explaining that she had only come to listen. Given the scarcity of public participation, this rare specimen of concerned citizenry got plenty of personal attention, with Superintendent of Schools Jan Harris sitting down with her to explain federal title programs, ESPLOST (education special purpose local option sales tax) and state requirements for a balanced budget, aided by Finance Director Paula Stallings.
“You’re awesome,” said the member of the public to Dr. Harris. “Thank you.”
In the formal part of the two BOE meetings, Ms. Stallings reported among other financial statistics to the board that 69.3 percent of the budget was spent directly on instruction as opposed to incidental costs such as busing and administration. She, and members of the board, also pointed out additional costs in the coming year such as rising Teachers’ Retirement System and health insurance contributions.
“We’re heading into this school year owing money,” said board member Gen. Bob Woods. “That’s just the way it is. We’re going to have to be smart about every expenditure.”
Ms. Stallings stressed that the system tries to pay for whatever it can out of ESPLOST rather than general fund money, even to the point of “peaching” a little. ESPLOST--sales tax as opposed to property tax money--by Georgia law can only be used for capital expenditures, such as construction, equipment or repairs, as opposed to operating costs such as salaries.
“We watch every dollar of our taxpayers’ money,” said Dr. Harris.
In other business, the board approved the resignations of Jane Foster, a paraprofessional at Dade Elementary School; Tommy Wells, a construction teacher at Dade High School; and Christi Hurley, a parapro at Dade Middle School. The board also approved the hiring of Patrick Frary and Katie Hudson as bus drivers; Skyla Castleberry as a parapro at DES; Chris Brown as a parapro at DMS; Meredith Tudor as a math teacher at DCHS; David Howard as a construction teacher at DCHS; and Aaron Simmons as an ISS teacher and baseball coach at DCHS.
Assistant Superintendent Billy Hooker said the system still needs to hire one more bus driver.
After the school board approved its proposed millage rate, Dr. Harris and board members headed across town to the Dade County Commission office where the commissioners had convened a special called meeting of their own to affix their seal of approval on the BOE’s rate. This is a yearly formality; the school board operates independently of the county government, which has no power to change its decisions. But the Dade Tax Commissioner’s office collects the school tax via property owners’ yearly tax bills, necessitating the formal approval.
Dr. Harris submitted the following figures to Dade County Executive Chairman Ted Rumley (above) and the other commissioners: Total school taxes of $5,860,623, minus a 2.5 fee to the Dade Tax Commissioner’s Office for collecting the tax percent, totaling $146,516, for net taxes to the BOE of $5,714,107.
The school board’s total FY2018 budget is $18,269,484. Besides local property taxes, the school system’s revenue comes from state and federal funding.
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