The Richmond County School System (RCSS) held its first public hearing for the fiscal year 2026 budget on May 27.
The next hearing will be held at the Board of Education office, 864 Broad St. on June 10 and the final budget will be approved on June 24.
Enrollment numbers drop as employment costs rise
As RCSS Chief Financial Officer Bobby Smith began presenting an overview of the budget on Tuesday afternoon, interim Superintendent Dr. Malinda Cobb spoke up to highlight one challenge being faced this year – the school district is down 461 students in its fall full-time equivalent count as of October 2024.
Full-time equivalent, or FTE, is a weighted count that the state uses to calculate how it will fund schools.
According to Dr. Cobb, 461 students is about the size of a small elementary school.
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With this student enrollment decrease, some of the required costs for keeping employees have increased. In order to make sure that school-based staff are in place, Dr. Cobb said that the district has decided to reduce its central office staffing budget by $1.3M.
The district presented the following video, created by Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, which breaks down how school districts receive funding and how FTE plays a part in that process.
Forecasted revenue and expenditures
According to Smith, the district is on track to finish the 2024-25 fiscal year with a total revenue of $363.9 million and total expenditures at $362.4 million.
“Right now, we’re projected to have about a $1.1 million surplus, revenues exceeding expenditures, as we’re trying to finish up the year,” Smith said.
Currently, the estimated total revenue for the 2025-26 school year is $366.3 million and estimated expenditures total $378.3 million.
Future considerations, potential consolidations
Smith indicated that the district plans to consolidate schools in the future to reduce operational costs, eventually eliminating the need to use monies from the fund balance reserve.
This year, Smith said, the district is using $12 million from reserves.
“Our goal is not to do that forever…our goal [in the] future is to eliminate that. Now, how do we do that? The way we do that is we’re going to start reducing costs from operations. One way we can do that is through consolidation of schools,” he said.
While Smith did not indicate which schools might be consolidated in the future, he added that each school that closes for consolidation purposes is estimated to save the district around $2 million in operational costs.
