Schools
City Schools to Expand 2012 Budget
The Cartersville school board also plans on holding called meeting next Thursday to discuss refinancing the school system's debt.
hope to up the budget next Monday, after the board agreed on an increase and budget in the amount of $33,443,400 for the 2011-2012 school year during its work session on Thursday.
The announcement came after Finance Committee chairman Kelley Dial said even after the May 2011 report of the SPLOST money received in the month of April, in which they received $359,525.81, the system is in great shape.
“After the best-ever month, last month, this month was a bit more of a reality check, but, it's still above what we've budgeted for,” said Dial, referring to April's $522,835.44 report.
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Dial said that this puts them at an average of $375,000 per month for SPLOST and the board is “very happy with their tax collection rate” as the school system has collected more than they had budgeted for.
“We had budgeted for 96 percent of the total tax bills that went out,” added Dial. “And we've collected more than 100 percent of that. Actually it's 102.8 percent.”
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And to make the most out of the money, Dial recommended that the budget be upped to $33,443,400 slightly from the previous tentative budget of $33,363,100, which had been approved last month.
This budget increase would accommodate for allocation of after-school tutoring for the extended school year.
Also at the work session, Superintendent Howard Hinesley announced a special, tentative call meeting for 5 p.m. next Thursday to refinance their bonds in hopes to find an earlier payoff option that could remove the system from debt by as early as 2015.
Hinesley said the reason that the group will plan to meet then is because it is hosted by the school board and city council, and that the system would meet with bond lawyers to make these financial decisions.
“We've been working on this for quite some time,” said Hinesley. “This would reduce the amount we will have to pay under the existing high school bonds, of which there are two. In addition to that we are looking for an earlier payoff.”
Hinesley said that the options for payoff could be as early as 2015, 2017 or 2022, according to the financing plan, which would optimistically reduce the amount they would owe.
“Our goal is to pay it off in the next 5 years,” said Hinesley.
