Terrell County schools cut budget, eliminate position while holding $10.8 million in reserves

DAWSON — The Terrell County Board of Education adopted a $13.2 million general fund budget for the coming school year that is 9.3% smaller than last year’s, eliminating a senior administrative position and reducing spending in several instructional support areas while holding nearly $10.8 million in unreserved general fund reserves — enough to cover roughly 10 months of operating expenses.

The board approved the Fiscal Year 2027 budget unanimously during its June 22 meeting in a 4-0 vote. Board member John Gardner was absent. During the same meeting, members approved a Reduction in Force plan eliminating the assistant superintendent for plant operations position and a consultant, adopted new salary schedules and authorized a $35,525 school safety purchase from Centegix.

The district’s May financial statements, approved by the board the same night, show that through 11 months of the fiscal year it had already exceeded several administrative budgets while spending less than one-fifth of what it had budgeted for school safety and security.

General administration expenditures totaled $908,613 against an annual budget of $605,585, or 150% of budget with one month remaining. Three other administrative functions also exceeded their full-year appropriations before the fiscal year ended: Central support services reached 156% of budget, school administration 117% and business administration 110%. Combined, the four functions exceeded their adopted budgets by approximately $634,954.

By comparison, instruction — the district’s largest expense — stood at 85.1% of budget through May, about $970,000 below its full-year appropriation. Student transportation had spent 71% of its budget, while educational media services, which includes school libraries, had spent 77.8%.

Measured against actual expenditures through May, instruction represented 40.9% of general fund spending. The four administrative functions together accounted for 23.2%.

School safety and security showed the largest gap between budgeted and actual spending. The district had spent $35,433 of its $182,495 budget, or 19.4%, leaving $147,062 unspent through May.

At the June meeting, the board approved a $35,525 contract with Centegix for Safety Blueprint and Crisis Alert coverage on the district’s main campus and Crawford Street properties. If that purchase were recorded against the FY ’26 budget, total school safety spending would still remain well below the amount budgeted. The FY ’27 budget again appropriates the identical amount — $182,495 — for school safety and security.

The adopted FY ’27 general fund budget projects $13,244,142 in both revenue and expenditures, balancing without using fund balance. According to the meeting minutes, the tentative budget “was amended to eliminate the projected deficit, resulting in a balanced budget,” although the minutes do not specify the size of the projected deficit or identify which line items were reduced.

The budget allocates $2.09 million to the same four administrative functions that exceeded budget this year. That is approximately $1.07 million less than the district had already spent on those functions through May and substantially below what a full-year total would have been if spending had continued at the same pace.

The only structural reductions disclosed during the June meeting were the elimination of the assistant superintendent for plant operations position and a consultant.

Elsewhere, the FY ’27 budget reduces funding for pupil services by 25.5%, improvement of instructional services by 44.6%, educational media services by 23.6% and student transportation by 13.8%.

Most of the overall budget reduction stems from lower state funding rather than local decisions. State revenue is projected to decline from $8,591,197 to $7,373,512, a reduction of $1,217,685, or 14.2%, accounting for roughly 90% of the budget decrease. Local property tax revenue is budgeted at $5,671,250, down $121,500 from the prior year.

Georgia funds school districts primarily through the Quality Basic Education formula, which is largely driven by enrollment. According to state data, the Terrell County School System currently serves approximately 921 students across its three schools.

Despite the smaller budget, the district continues to maintain a sizable reserve. May financial statements show an unreserved general fund balance of $10,819,331 — equal to approximately 82% of the FY ’27 operating budget, or about 9.8 months of operating expenditures. Through May, general fund revenues exceeded expenditures by $66,518, contributing to that reserve balance.

Georgia law generally limits school systems from accumulating unrestricted reserves exceeding 15% of their annual operating budgets. O.C.G.A. § 20-2-167 states the provision is intended to prevent school systems from accumulating excessive taxpayer-funded surpluses without accounting for how those funds will be used.

Fifteen percent of Terrell County’s FY ’27 general fund budget equals $1,986,621, substantially below the district’s current unrestricted balance.

However, Terrell County operates as a charter school system, a designation that can provide waivers from portions of Georgia education law. The Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts has previously reported that systems operating under charter or strategic flexibility contracts may receive exemptions from the statutory reserve limitation. The Dawson News could not independently confirm whether Terrell County’s current charter contract includes that waiver.

Statewide, the Department of Audits and Accounts has reported the average school district operating reserve is approximately 25% of annual expenditures.

The budget also projects the school nutrition fund will spend $120,173 more than it receives in revenue, requiring the difference to come from the fund balance. Through May, however, that fund held only $101,924 in unreserved reserves, less than the projected use of fund balance. The expenditure budget of $1,120,568 remains unchanged from the prior year, although the district had spent $862,354 through May.

The debt service fund similarly anticipates no revenue during FY ’27 while budgeting a $240,834 debt payment entirely from existing reserves of approximately $533,550. If no additional revenue is added to the fund, reserves would be depleted by FY 2029.

Capital projects spending continued to reduce reserves during FY ’26. Through May, the district spent $3.5 million on capital outlay, reducing the capital projects fund balance from $4.78 million to $2.35 million. After accounting for $862,438 in outstanding purchase orders, the unreserved balance stood at approximately $1.49 million. Although SPLOST was listed among the financial reports reviewed at the June meeting, the minutes contain no discussion of the projects funded by those expenditures.

The budget document itself also contains several apparent inconsistencies. It lists $236,089 in transfers into special revenue funds and $182,079 in transfers out, without corresponding entries elsewhere in the budget, even though interfund transfers ordinarily balance. A figure of $1,472,330 appears alongside the local tax revenue line outside any fund column and is excluded from every total on the page. The “Consolidated Funds” column is blank throughout the document, and the budget header lists the fiscal year as ending June 20,, rather than June 30. The Dawson News has requested clarification from the school district.