Fulton County Schools adopts budget as revenue, enrollment drop

Fulton County Schools Superintendent Mike Looney seen in a meeting earlier in the year noted the school district can expect hard choices and budget cuts as enrollment and revenue decline Photo by Bob Pepalis A billion budget will mark the new fiscal year for Fulton County Schools as the district closes three schools and opens a new one The Fulton County Schools FCS Board of Training approved its Fiscal Year budget during its June work session It includes a billion general fund budget to promotion the school district s day-to-day operations Spalding Drive in Sandy Springs Conley Hills and Park Lane Elementary Schools have closed Briar Hills Elementary School will open for the next school year Related stories Fulton County Schools CFO warns of impending financial problem Fulton school board votes to close Spalding Drive Elementary Other budget highlights include percent raise for eligible employees Step amount of million as facilitator pay increases with years of experience million employer vitality insurance cost increase million increase in professor retirement services costs Our enrollment has declined by over students and our cost per pupil over the last five years has increased by percent that s five years year over year board member Kristin McCabe commented Declining enrollment cuts revenue from the state The state s Quality Basic Tuition funding model requires more affluent school districts to give back a local fair share that has FCS sending percent of state funding back to the state Superintendent Mike Looney directed district staff to cut five percent from their operational budgets before they started working on the Fiscal Year budget Plans are based on five-year projections I want to be clear tonight We are working on a strategy to address the financial challenges and headwinds before us over the next several years Looney declared The school district will continue looking for tactics to save money but the only way to cut meaningful amounts of money in a people-centric business is by cutting people That reduces services for students increases class sizes and cuts the number of programs available for students The post Fulton County Schools adopts budget as revenue enrollment drop appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta