Cobb County school officials are calling for a 2.5 percent raise for district employees as well as hiring 65 teachers for the next school year.
School board members were presented a tentative budget of nearly $986 million for the 2016-17 school year at a meeting Wednesday.
The board is expected to approve the budget at a meeting May 19. School leaders say they’ll be getting public input in the coming weeks, with at least one public forum set for May 11.
Like other school districts in metro Atlanta, Cobb has seen an increase in local property tax revenue as well as a bump in state funding to support school services in the last couple of years, following the recession.
However, Cobb school leaders say the district still faces “revenue challenges” and are proposing to use $10 million from reserve funds to stay in the black.
"The budget is very tight, and there's not much lapse left in the budget," said the district's Chief Financial Officer Brad Johnson at Wednesday's meeting.
Moody’s Investors Service recently assigned Cobb schools its Triple A rating. That’s the highest credit rating available for a government entity, and this is the first time Cobb has earned that rating.
The Triple A rating “reflects the district’s sizable and diverse tax base, sound reserve position characterized by conservative budgeting and formal financial policies, and an above average pension burden, mitigated by the absence of any long-term debt,” according to a released statement from the Cobb school district.
Cobb is the second-largest school district in Georgia, with close to 113,000 students.
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