Decatur, GA — The City Schools of Decatur School Board will meet on Tuesday, April 12, at 6:30 p.m. for a regular meeting. The meeting will be held in person at the Wilson School Support Center, 125 Electric Ave. in Decatur.

Here are the meeting access instructions:

The board will continue the practice of streaming meetings via Zoom and available at the following link.

Join the Board Meeting: https://csdecatur.zoom.us/j/95614159391

Join by Phone:

Dial: +1 646 558 8656 or +1 301 715 8592 and enter Webinar ID: 956 1415 9391

To view the meeting agenda, click here.

During the meeting, the board will consider tentatively approving the fiscal year 2023 budget and approving a 50 cent increase for school meals. CSD’s current fiscal year, 2022, ends on June 30 and fiscal year 2023 begins on July 1. The next budget will need to be approved by July 1.

The FY23 budget reflects $3.8 million in operational budget cuts, which Chief Financial Officer Lonita Broome and Superintendent Maggie Fehrman presented at the March 8 school board meeting.

The school system’s budget breaks down into four categories — the school nutrition revenue budget, the special revenue budget, the capital projects budget and the general fund budget.

The preliminary FY23 general fund budget anticipates receiving about $85.6 million in revenue and spending the same amount, reflecting a balanced budget. Some highlights of the general fund include:

– Adding three counselors

– Maintaining the current millage rate of 21 mills

– A step increase for eligible employees

– A $2,000 increase to the teachers’ salary scale

– Increasing the equity budget

– A 5% reduction in all operational budgets

The district’s fund balance, its reserve fund, is projected to have a beginning balance of $5.6 million and a projected ending balance of $6.1 million.

The fund balance is also looked at in terms of percentage of expenditures in the general fund that come from the reserves and is required to be at least at 4%. The base budget for fiscal year 2023 projected the fund balance to be at $2.1 million and 2.45% of expenditures by the end of the fiscal year. The FY23 budget projects the fund balance to end at 7.19%.

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