Preliminary figures for Habersham County School District’s 2026 fiscal year budget were unveiled during a public hearing on Monday, May 5. Despite the significance of the proposed $137 million budget – a nearly 9% increase from last year—no members of the public spoke at the hearing.
The initial proposal projects a shortfall of $8 million, with estimated revenues of $129 million falling short of the expected $137 million in expenditures. The general fund, which makes up the largest portion of the budget, faces a deficit of just over $2.1 million.
Chief Financial Officer Staci Newsome said the district plans to use reserves from the fund balance to cover the gap. She added that more accurate revenue projections could become available once updated property tax digest figures are released.
“Habersham County School District uses an open, transparent and all-inclusive budget development process, which solicits input at different stages from stakeholders – include the board, principals, teachers, staff and the community at large,” Newsome said Monday.
The general fund, totaling $104 million, accounts for the majority of the school system’s spending, primarily salaries and student instruction. Of that, 87% is allocated toward paying the district’s 1,187 employees and delivering instruction to more than 7,000 students across 14 schools.
In addition to the general fund, the overall budget comprises four other categories: debt service, capital projects, special revenue, and school nutrition. Newsome and board members emphasized that funds in each category are restricted for specific uses and cannot be reallocated.
“A lot of people in the community feel like we have one big bucket of money, and that we just pay everything out of that one bucket,” Board Member Doug Westmoreland said in a message to the public. “Like capital projects, that money is used for redoing the football field and things like that. We can’t use that money for insurance increases and stuff like that…we can’t just dip out of one huge bucket of money, and if we don’t use that money, we’ll lose that money.”
A key driver of the increased budget is the rising cost of employer-paid health insurance. For certified staff – those with state-issued credentials – monthly premiums will increase from $1,760 to $1,885. While the state helps cover some of these costs, the situation is more challenging for classified staff, whose premiums are jumping from $1,580 to $1,885 per month, with no state support to offset the rise.
“That is an increase of $305 per person per month,” Newsome said in April. “There is no state funding for this, so this is a straight local cost…that is completely out of our control – this is legislated by the state of Georgia and is in the law.”
Board Member Joey Duncan noted the school board has limited control over much of the budget, at least to some extent.
“Out of this total budget, we might have control over less than 30% of that,” he said. “Otherwise, everything else is dictated – whether it’s the revenue or expense side.”
On the revenue side, state funding through the Quality Basic Education (QBE) formula is projected to rise slightly, from $62 million in 2025 to $63.7 million in 2026, reflecting higher student enrollment.
Habersham’s Board of Education is expected to adopt the final version of the 2026 budget on June 16.
