Oconee County Schools took in $7.8 million more in revenue than projected in Fiscal Year 2024, according to the Year-To-Date Budget Report for June 30 released to the Board of Education at its meeting on Monday.
The biggest gain in revenue over budgeted amount was for investment income, which totaled $2.7 million. The Board had budgeted investment income of only $50,000.
The budget approved by the Board had listed only $2.0 million in title taxes, yet final revenue in that category was $3.9 million.
The final, unaudited Budget Report listed $1.7 million more in grants from the Georgia Department of Education than was budgeted for, and $0.7 million more in ad valorem property taxes than was listed in the approved budget.
Oconee County Schools also spent more than budgeted, according to the June 30 Budget Report. Spending was $2.9 million more than projected.
This was true even though Oconee County Schools spent $2.4 million less on instruction than budgeted. This reduction in spending was offset by spending $4.9 million more on facility acquisition than budgeted.
The June 30 Year-To-Date Budget report was one of seven fiscal reports that Chief Financial Officer Peter Adams presented to the Board on Monday.
Adams also reported that Oconee County Schools has spent nearly $1 million more on construction of the Instructional Support Center than estimated when the project began. Spending is not complete.
Monday’s Meeting
Citizens packed the board room at the Instructional Support Center on Monday to show their support for a proposal to put school resource officers in each of the system’s 12 schools.
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| Adams Approaching Podium 9/16/2024 |
Citizens were given a chance to speak only after the Board recognized the Oconee County High Schools Alumni Association, which awarded $1,000 grants to the Oconee County High School and North Oconee County High School Agriculture Departments.
Colham Ferry Elementary School Principal Katherine Brown and her staff then gave a presentation on their school's agricultural program.
Adams next presented his seven reports to the Board.
Included was the Year-To-Date Budget Report for August, the second month of the current Fiscal Year.
That report shows that Oconee County Schools already has taken in $354,515 in investment income, though, as in past years, only $50,000 was budgeted by the Board as investment revenue.
Adams also reported that ELOST collections received in August were just more than $1 million, as they have been for the last three months. August receipts were for July collection.
The August revenue was 2.9 percent higher than for August of last year, while revenue in July was 10.3 percent higher than a year earlier, and revenue in June was 8.5 percent higher than that same month a year earlier.
Budget Reports Income
Citizens asked about the discrepancy between the budgeted revenue from interest and actual receipts during budget hearings earlier this year, but no clear explanation for that budgeting strategy was provided.
The budget approved by the Board for Fiscal Year 2024 listed a little more than $47.0 million in ad valorem taxes, and Oconee County Schools actually received just more than $47.7 million.
The June 30 Budget Report listed $68,556 more in income from rental of property than budgeted, and $305,249 more in unspecified “other local revenues.”
State Quality Basic Education (QBE) funding had been projected at just less than $62.7 million, but the actual revenue received was just more than $62.6 million.
Oconee County Schools is required to contribute 5 mills of funding to the QBE formula, and that amount dropped slightly from the budgeted $12,756,766 to $12,748,450.
Budget Report Spending
The June 30 Year-To-Date Budget Report shows that Oconee County Schools spent just less than $39.1 million in the Instruction category for teachers, though it had budgeted just more than $41.0 million.
It spent more on certified substitute teachers, however, and on noncertified substitutes. It spent less on paraprofessionals than budgeted.
The Board had budgeted $284,810 for compensation for Superintendent Jason Branch but spent $289,591. Branch’s compensation package in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget is $301,633.
The $4.9 million in facility acquisition that was not budgeted includes $2 million labeled as “land improvement” and $2 million for building acquisition/construction.
Adams gave no indication what those expenditures were for, and no Board member asked.
ELOST Report
Spending on the large building program covered in part by the Education Local Option Sales Tax (ELOST) referendum approved by voters in March of 2021, has now reached $68.7 million, Adams reported on Monday.
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| Screen Shot Adams Addressing Board 9/16/2024 |
Adams’s report on ELOST listed total current expenditures for the new Instructional Support Center of $15,446,265 against an estimated cost for the facility of $14,543,708.
So far, Oconee County Schools has spent $39,162,452 for the new Dove Creek Middle School that opened a year ago. The estimated cost was $39,579,900.
Both the Instructional Support Center and the Dove Creek Middle School are listed as “in progress,” meaning expenditures remain outstanding.
The classroom additions at Colham Ferry Elementary School and at High Shoals Elementary School are listed as completed, with the final costs $3,592,667 and $3,063,442 respectively.
Both of those costs are under the estimates of $3,650,000 for Colham Ferry and $3,200,000 for High Shoals.
Adams reported that ELOST collections now stand at $19.1 million with just more than a year and a half into the tax collection, which will run for five years.
Collections are capped at $48.5 million.
The Board borrowed just less than $43 million to get the construction underway even before tax collection began, and total bond payments will total $46.7 million. The Board made its first payment of $3.9 million on Aug. 31 of this year.
Video
I shot the video below from the rear of the room, as prescribed by Steven Colquitt, Director of Communications for Oconee County Schools.
The first picture above is from my video.
The second picture above is a screen shot from the video recorded by Oconee County Schools and available on the system’s YouTube Channel.
Adams made his report at 15:47 in the video below.
Public Comment begins at 18:01 in the video below.
1 comment:
The question of why planned (budgeted) investment income is so much lower than is historically collected was raised at the millage rate sessions. (In my prior life, that disconnect, without explanation, would be described as "low balling".) Answer from the school board: stone silence.
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