The Habersham County Board of Education will meet Thursday, June 13, for its monthly work session. The board will discuss two key topics during the meeting, the FY 2025 budget and the FY 2025 millage rate.
The school system’s FY 2025 budget was presented during the Board of Education’s April and May work sessions. The system’s proposed total budget is $126,806,511. That total represents all funds including the general operating fund, special revenue fund, capital projects, debt service, and school nutrition.
The general fund makes up the largest portion of the total budget, coming in at $97,042,115. That is an increase of 9.39% or $8,328,863 over the approved FY 2024 budget. Over 55% of the increase is due to state mandated pay raises for teachers and classified personnel, as well as increases in health insurance costs for all personnel. Also, as part of that increase, 41 employees will shift to the general fund expense that had previously been funded by ARP Federal Funds at a cost of $2,348,575. The federal funding for that program will expire at the end of September.
According to the proposed budget, general fund expenditures will exceed revenues collected. The board will use $2,842,037 from prior year reserve funds to balance the budget for FY 2025.
The second topic the Board of Education will discuss is the FY 2025 millage rate. A review of the proposed budget does not include additional property taxes being collected. It does anticipate a slight increase in local option sales tax collections for 2025 that may result in a millage rate rollback should the anticipated collections hold true.
In other business
The board members will receive an update on capital projects from Assistant School Superintendent Patrick Franklin that are ongoing system wide. One such project update is the addition to Clarkesville Elementary School that should be completed over the next six weeks.
An executive session will be held where the board members will discuss personnel matters that will affect next school year. They will also discuss real estate matters.
The meeting will begin at 4:30 p.m. and will be held in the Board Meeting Room at 144 Holcomb Street in Clarkesville.
