Muscogee County School District proposes budget with pay raise for most employees

About three hours into Monday night’s Muscogee County School Board work session, the administration presented its proposed fiscal year 2017 budget – and it was worth the wait for most school district employees.

Among the proposed expenditures totaling $274,660,024 (an increase of 2.2 percent), the administration seeks some form of salary increase for about 85 percent of the district’s staff, including a 2 percent raise for certificated educators. This would be the first “significant” increase in the local pay supplement since at least the early 1990s, superintendent David Lewis told the board.

Lewis and the district’s chief financial officer, Theresa Thornton, said the promised 3 percent raise for teachers from the state didn’t materialize in Muscogee County. The district instead received 1.14 percent (amounting to $1,711,165), “so we’re making some additional enhancements from our general reserve to give our employees those additional pay increases,” Lewis said.

To accomplish that goal while keeping the property tax millage rate at 23.37 for the 20^th straight year, the administration plans to use $7,619,053 of its fund balance. That would reduce the fund balance from the projected fiscal FY 2016 figure of $51,993,572 (equal to 55.8 days of operations) to $44,374,519 (equal to 45.7 days of operations).

Lewis, however, noted the district recoups “around $6 million in fund balance by the end of the year. So, in essence, we’re going to be able to rebuild our reserve or at least maintain it.”

The fund balance when he became superintendent in July 2013, Lewis said, equaled “32 or 33 days in reserve. … So we’ve made some great strides the last couple of years.”

The district expects to benefit from a 1.5 percent growth in the local tax digest, based on new or enhanced property. That would increase the local revenue from $107,290,366 to $108,899,721.

The final two FY 2017 hearings in the board room of the Muscogee County Public Education Center will be May 16 at 6 p.m. and June 13 at 5 p.m. The board is scheduled to vote on the millage rate and the budget during its June 20 meeting, starting at 6 p.m. The district’s fiscal year starts July 1.

This story was originally published May 10, 2016 at 11:49 AM with the headline "Muscogee County School District proposes budget with pay raise for most employees."