Putnam County School Board Members stand optimistic regarding the district’s ability to resolve a $5 million budget gap following a joint session with the county commission.
School Board Chariman Lynn McHenry said the school system maintains a healthy fund balance that can be utilized to offset a portion of the shortfall. McHenry said the district is also anticipating a significant boost in sales tax revenue and continued support from the county commission for major infrastructure needs.
“After the meeting with the commissioners that we had as a joint session, which we try to do every year, I felt actually very good about it,” McHenry said. “We recognize that we have the ability to help close that five million dollar gap and the commission is also willing to help us with some capital projects also. So I’m thinking that between what we can do and what I think they’re going to be able to do, we’re going to be in good shape.”
McHenry said the $132 million budget remains functional because the district can work within its existing means without placing an excessive burden on the commission. McHenry said the current fund balance is considered strong by historical standards, allowing the board to cover the gap while avoiding a significant depletion of its reserves.
“So many of the great achievements we’ve had over the last few years is due to the fact that we had a lot of funds coming from either from ESSER or from the state that allowed us to add some teaching positions, some coaches, some positions that helped for you know to help our students academic success,” McHenry said. “With that, it takes money to keep those people employed and to keep those ratios that we like to have and to be able to continue to increase our performance based on what we’ve had in the last two or three years.”
McHenry said the expiration of federal ESSER funds and various state grants has created the current budgetary challenge as the district works to maintain its recent academic progress. McHenry said the school system is determined not to reverse course after achieving exemplary status and seeing marked improvements in student test scores.
“Likely there’s going to be quite a bit of an increase in, they’re hoping for quite a bit of an increase in sales tax revenue and that’s going to help us a lot,” McHenry said. “Also historically the county has done a really good job helping us with capital projects and that’s something we’ve always worked through year after year. And so if we have a boiler or a chiller that goes down at one of the high schools or a roof that needs done, oftentimes the county will pitch in and help us with a lot of those capital projects.”
McHenry said when the county assumes responsibility for capital projects like HVAC repairs or roofing, it frees up school funds to be redirected toward closing the operational budget gap. McHenry said this collaborative approach with the county commission is the likely path forward for the current budget cycle.
“Well I don’t think it’s definitely not a time for panic at all because we’ve made such great strides and we see a way that we can close this gap and still make everything work hopefully without the commission having to ask for extra moneys from the citizens of Putnam County,” McHenry said. “Hopefully with what we do have, we can work with without any kind of increase against the citizens, so we feel pretty good about it.”
McHenry said the district remains focused on continuous improvement while moving in a positive direction.
“Just you know keep in mind, we want to remind everybody how great everything’s going and we still see obviously areas that we need to improve in, but we are happy with the direction that our system is going and we always appreciate all the citizens giving their support and obviously making sure that we keep kids first, so that’s about it,” McHenry said.