Superintendent Dr. Steven Flynt gave the first presentation of the Columbia County School District’s budget for the 2023-2024 fiscal year to the Board of Education during its regular session Tuesday evening.
The current estimate for the budget has some $327 million in revenue, with $323 million in expenditures, with an ending fund balance increase of roughly 20%. Flynt noted that that just under 60% of the district’s funding comes from state revenue, a little over 40% from local and a “very small percentage” from federal.
Flynt acknowledged before the board that nearly 90% of the budget’s expenses are salaries and benefits.
“This is a people-heavy business, and our people do a great job,” said the superintendent. “Our most important resources here are our human resources here.”
The proposed budget includes an increase in salary for starting teachers from approximately $45,000 to $47,000. Average teacher salaries in Columbia County have gone up to more than $65,000 this year, though average new teacher salaries are at roughly more than $55,000, as most teachers newly hired to the district are more experienced, Flynt said.
The proposed budget for school nutrition shows a little over $14 million in revenues, and more than $16 million in expenditures. Flynt told the board that the district budget for school nutrition had been in the negative for the last couple of years and had been able to acquire additional state and federal funding during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Both state and federal governments have told the district that it may continue to retain those excess funds over the course of a three-year spend-down period.
District administration is scheduled to present the budget again on May 2, at 8 a.m., in a meeting at which the public may offer input, followed by another public budget meeting right before the regularly scheduled school board meeting on May 9, and then final approval of the budget on May 23.
During the meeting’s public participation portion, Corey Myers spoke before the board regarding his daughter, Evans High School senior Courtlyn Myers, who had been bumped down from 2023 salutatorian by a graduating junior. Citing a change in the school district’s grading policy that increased the GPA points of select AP courses from five to 10, Myers noted that his daughter had taken 14 AP classes, while the 11th grade student had completed less than half of that number. Myers argued that the policy revisions should have clarified their impact upon incoming freshman classes moving forward to ensure students are weighted equally.
Myers told the board that he and his wife met with Courtlyn’s counselor and AP coordinator, who told them that if the fourth nine weeks grades were considered important, Courtlyn would again be salutatorian.
“This is simply the equivalent of playing a basketball game and determining the winner by who has the lead at the end of the third quarter, and only playing the fourth quarter as a formality,” Myers said.
Myers urged that the school district address the situation in a timely manner, as school graduation in Columbia County is May 26.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
