Scheduled Third Reading Of School District Of Oconee County Fiscal Year 2020 Budget On Agenda For School Board Meeting Tonight
(Seneca, SC)————–The School District of Oconee County Board of Trustees will hold their regular meeting tonight in the School Board Conference Room at the School District Office’s located on Pine Street in Walhalla. The meeting will begin at 6pm.
One of the main topics, if not the main topic on the agenda tonight, will be the 3rd reading of the School District’s Fiscal Year 2020 budget. The budget for the next fiscal year, which begins July 1st, totals almost $106.8 million dollars, which is over $4.8 million dollars more than the Fiscal Year 2019 budget.
Even with a proposed 1 mill tax increase, which could total over $411,000, the School District budget is showing a budget deficit of over $2.4 million dollars, which means that the School District will have to use money in its reserve fund balance to make up the difference.
Dr. Michael Thorsland, Superintendent of Education for the School District of Oconee County, says the reason for the almost 5% increase in the budget focuses on two areas, salaries and fringe benefits, payroll taxes and matching expenses, which includes state retirement contributions.
Dr. Thorsland said that 90% of the budget involve salaries and other benefits for the approximately 1,500 employees of the School District. Thorsland says that it has been the policy that when the State Legislature has approved salary increases for teachers and other educational employees, as they are this year, the School District of Oconee County Board of Trustees has improved salary increases for all School District of Oconee County employees.
Dr. Thorsland said the game plan is for the School District to go before County Council sometime in June to present their budget. Oconee County Council has approved the first reading of the School District budget and two more readings are required by County Council for the School District budget to become final.
Dr. Thorsland said this morning on Coffee Time that the School District will work hard to make sure to tighten spending in order to try to have a balanced budget in future budget cycles.