Fulton school board members are considering a budget for next school year that would include pay raises for all employees.
Board members got a preliminary look at the fiscal year 2017 budget priorities and revenue projections at a meeting Tuesday. The proposed budget includes a 5 percent raise for teachers and a 3 percent raise for all other district staff.
Those who teach special education, an area in high demand locally and nationally, would receive an additional $3,000 supplement to their salary. In addition to the increase, no employee will experience furlough days or pay cuts.
In total, the general operating budget is expected to be just over $952 million. The FY 2017 budget is expected to be tentatively approved May 19, with final adoption June 7.
Fulton schools are projecting nearly $40 million more in revenue for the coming school year — a result of state lawmakers allotting more money to school systems as well as an increase in local property taxes. School systems across Georgia get the majority of their funding from those two sources, while a small percentage comes from federal dollars.
“Giving our employees a pay raise and step increase is one of the tangible ways we’re able to show our appreciation for what they do every day for students,” said Linda McCain, president of the school board, in a released statement. “Despite a 1.5 percent growth in the tax digest, we are in a very good place with our financial resources.”
Fulton’s school district was recently assigned Moody’s Investors Service’s Triple A credit rating, the highest for a government body, for the first time. Moody’s upgraded Fulton schools from an Aa1 rating to Aaa. As strengths, Moody’s cited Fulton schools’ “large tax base that serves as a regional economic and employment center, historically stable reserve and liquidity positions, manageable debt burden and the use of Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) revenues to provide significant funding for debt service and capital needs,” according to the statement from the district.
The Fulton school district is the fourth-largest in Georgia, with close to 96,000 students and 101 schools. Schools leaders just released a report projecting student enrollment in north Fulton will decrease in the coming years.
The number of students in Fulton County for 2015-16 is 95,694 and is expected to jump to 97,858 in the next five years.
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