Lower enrollment means less "wiggle room" on the budget for Aiken County public schools; may lead to property tax increase
Apr. 14—With enrollment numbers down after a pandemic year, the Aiken County Public School District is expected to receive significantly less money from the state, said district officials at the Aiken County Board of Education's budget workshop meeting Tuesday.
District officials offered a few solutions to address the list of budget requests not accounted for in the current budget proposal — including a possible property tax increase.
"There isn't a lot of wiggle room that we have had in some other years," Tray Traxler, chief officer of finance for the school district, said. He explained that the district could reduce expenditures, repurpose resources, use fund balance for one-time purchases or increase property taxes to alleviate the issue.
More elementary school counselors, two preventative maintenance mechanics and bonus pay for teachers in the "pay band" — the salary level given to teachers in their first three years of employment — are some of the highest priority budget requests.
Medium- and low-priority requests include expenses like media center upgrades, supplemental funding for athletic programs, more school supplies, furniture replacements in schools, increased travel budgets and more money for transportation repairs and maintenance.
New band equipment is on the request list as well. At the last school board meeting, former board chairman Keith Liner said many of the current band instruments in schools are in "deplorable" condition, providing photos of the damaged instruments.
Potential new jobs are also in the budget requests. A fine arts coordinator and a world language coordinator for instructional services, another staff member for the communications department and assistant executive supervisors for transportation are among the requested positions.
School board member Brian Silas asked district officials why lower priority budget requests were listed, given the lack of "wiggle room" in the budget to fund them.
Superintendent King Laurence said some of the requests are one-time purchases that the school board could select for funding where available.
According to the school district's timeline, the school board will have a first reading of the budget on April 20. Approval of the budget is slated for May 25.
Other business
In executive session, the school board received legal advice on a bond issue and discussed a property matter.
The school board approved Silas's motion after executive session to authorize the board chairman and superintendent to execute a sales contract on behalf of the district for a property.
Board members also approved hiring a new administrator.
District 5 board member Barry Moulton was absent from the meeting.
To view a livestream of the meeting, visit acpsd.net.
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