No furloughs or workforce cuts in HCBOE FY21 budget

The Houston County Board of Education met on Monday for their annual Board Retreat. This specialized meeting of the minds typically takes place yearly in the month of May; however, due to COVID-19 and the shelter-in-place mandate that had been set by the governor because of it, this year’s assembly was postponed until gathering restrictions were eased.

According to Houston County Superintendent of Schools Dr. Mark Scott, one of the purposes of the retreat is to provide the opportunity for dedicated training.

“The board members are required each year to have governance training, where we do a self-assessment and look at the things that we think are going really well, in addition to the things that may not be going as well,” Scott said. “We also have an opportunity to look in depth at the budget and to talk about our ESPLOST projects.”

Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Business Operations Stephen Thublin was on hand to go through all of the financial details with those who gathered in the Herman Ragin Conference Center. In doing so, he presented a lengthy PowerPoint presentation that offered a breakdown of the financial business as it stood to date.

“It is bare bones as far as raises or equipment replacement,” Thublin stated, but he added that there was one thing that he wanted to make very clear. Thublin reported that he’d been receiving calls from workers who, he said, are concerned about the security of their jobs or cut backs in hours. To that, he emphasized, “The budget includes no furloughs, no work calendar adjustments and no reduction in workforce. And I do not foresee any way that it would. In fact, it’s my feeling that it’ll only get better.”

During a brief break from the session, Scott told Houston Home Journal, “We spend a great deal of time discussing the budget, but nothing is finalized today. We hope to approve of our proposed, or our tentative budget that at the board meeting tomorrow (Tuesday). And then we will look to do a final budget at our July meeting.”

Typically, this time of year would be the point where the final budget would be the focus for approval, but Scott explained that the delays caused by COVID pushed everything back.

“The General Assembly is going back into session, I believe, on June 15,” he informed. “That’s when they will set the revenues, and we’ll know exactly what kind of money we’re getting from the state, and that way, we’ll be able to approve the final budget in July.”

At that time, Scott said that they would either have to approve the final budget or pass a Spending Resolution. “That Spending Resolution, we will take to the board tomorrow,” he revealed. “That just pretty much says that we’ll continue at the same level that this year’s budget was on for the month of July, and get our final budget approved on July 21.”

All decisions regarding the budget at this year’s board retreat will affect the 2020-21 school year as schools around the county prepare to reconvene in the fall.

“That budget actually starts on July 1,” Scott mentioned. “That’s why we do the Spending Resolution; because we won’t have an official resolution until the July board meeting.”

Expressing a sense of gratefulness during the session, Houston County Board of Education Chairman Fred Wilson stated, “Everything I’ve heard about our budget and finances is positive, and I’m very pleased, because I hear from other school systems and other organizations where they’re wondering where they’re going to get enough money to do what they need to do. Not what they want to do,” he stressed, “but what they need to do. We are blessed to have enough to do what we need to do.”

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