Washington County BOE balances budget with cuts, fund balance
JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) — Pushing back teacher raises, reducing increases to the maintenance and repair budget, and tapping into the fund balance are the measures the Washington County Board of Education approved Thursday night to plug a multi-million-dollar hole in its budget for the next fiscal year.
Scheduled step pay increases were left in the budget, but proposed raises were left out.
That means kicking the can down the road when it comes to meeting a state-mandate minimum teacher salary of $50,000 by 2026. Superintendent Jerry Boyd was hoping to raise salaries incrementally, but either way, the school system will have to comply with the minimum requirement by 2026.
“But that is a requirement,” Boyd said. “So next year’s conversation and next year’s budget, you take what we asked for this year, and at minimum, you can double that.”
Boyd said that even if the school system meets the state minimum, it would be a “sad situation” for current teachers and make retaining them even more difficult.
“We had a plan. It was out of necessity. We have to meet that level, but unfortunately it’s at the lowest level of a starting teacher, minimum salary in the state of Tennessee,” Boyd said.
Another cut was made Thursday night to a line item for textbook-related needs.
“We previously reduced it. We reduced it again, another $450,000 to leave the line item at $750,000,” Boyd said.
School board members had previously OKd using $2 million from the fund balance to reduce the budget shortfall from $6 million to $4 million. Combined with the cuts made Thursday night, the remaining deficit was virtually eliminated.
“They essentially got it down to just under $100,000,” Boyd said.
Thursday night’s meeting came after county commissioners approved a budget Wednesday that did not include the increased funding that the school system had asked for. Boyd said he had hoped for additional funding without a tax increase.
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