Bad Links?
Other glitches?
Notify Webmaster

Coweta school millage set

The Coweta County Board of Education approved 2004 millage rates Tuesday, lowering property tax rates from 18.61 mills currently to 18.59 mills for 2004.

The board also kept the school bond millage rate at 0 mills. That tax rate was eliminated in 2002 through the use of Special Purpose Local Option Sales taxes to retire existing school bonds over five years.

Superintendent Peggy Connell and comptroller Keith Chapman recommended the tax rate decrease. Local property taxes fund approximately half of the school system's annual operations budget, with most of the remaining funds coming from the state of Georgia.

Chapman also informed the board that the school system is currently completing the close-out of the 2004 fiscal year (which ended June 30), and projected that the school system will end the year with an $8 million general fund balance. If so, the fund balance will be higher than earlier projected, because of tight spending controls by schools, an unexpected reimbursement of federal program funds, and a spate of new home purchases and home refinancing, Chapman said.

"I think all of us feel much better about our financial condition at this point," said board member Allan Payton.

"We have faced some very, very difficult economic times over the last two years," said chairman Rick Melville. "I didn't think, six or eight months ago, that we would be meeting in July and talking about these kind of numbers."

Melville thanked Chapman and Connell for work on the budget during a difficult year, and said that the result of the work was that the board "didn't have to raise taxes and nobody lost their job in the process."

The board also approved $14 million in short-term borrowing to begin meeting expenditures during the new 2004-05 school year. Chapman said the borrowing is standard practice to cover expenses in the operational budget before taxes are collected, and any portion of the amount that is actually borrowed will be repaid from incoming tax revenue before Dec. 31.

The board's vote on 2004 tax rates comes earlier than those in past years, in order to meet a new Aug. 1 deadline for submitting millage rates to the state. Chapman said that the county tax assessor's office provided his office with new tax digest information early enough to allow the board to set rates at its regular July meeting, rather than at a called meeting later in the year.

The vote also follows the second and final approval of the 2004-2005 school system budget on June 24. The $127 million operational budget covers the school system for its fiscal year of July 1, 2004, through June 30, 2005.

The $127,672,209 operational budget is the principal part of an overall budget of $180,565,705. The overall budget includes construction funds and special funds such as federally-funded programs.

Adoption of the budget follows a reduction of $3.9 million in state funding for the new fiscal year, and a total of $8.8 million in austerity cuts from the state over the last three years, said Superintendent Peggy Connell

"We have gone through tough economic times in Georgia and it has been a tough time for the state and for school systems generally, including us," said Dr. Connell. "But there are several signs of improvement in our economy, and we believe this budget best addresses a difficult financial situation this year."

Coweta's state legislators also secured $2.6 million in funding for the new Grantville elementary school, which offset the amount of local revenues needed to finish the school's construction. Dr. Connell publicly thanked them for their representation on that matter.

"We still needed cuts in this year's budget, but it wasn't as bad as we had feared," she said.

The budget also makes use of up to $3.7 million in school system reserve funds, from a total reserve fund of $7.4 million. Use of the reserve funds allows the school system to leave current high school schedules in place, keeps several elementary class sizes smaller than earlier anticipated, keeps elementary schools STOP program teaching assistants in place, and hires needed special education teachers for the new year, among other priorities.

Central office administration was cut by $431,442 in the 2005 budget, with a decrease of one assistant superintendent, two director-level positions, four half-time administrative positions, and 1.5 support positions. The duties have been spread among remaining administrative staff.

System enrollment growth, however, provided the need for new teaching positions at most schools and in the school system overall, and teachers who wanted a position in the school system and who had proper certification were found positions next year, Connell said. The budget also provides a cost of living raise to teachers, and passes on appropriate raises to personnel.