Columbia County School Board adopts 2025-26 budget, sets millage above rollback rate

Columbia County School Board members on Sept. 9 adopted the district's fiscal 2025-26 budget and approved local millage rates that exceed the statutory rollback rate, after a presentation from the district's finance director about uncertainties in state funding calculations.

In a public hearing preceding the regular meeting, the board acknowledged that the district's total millage exceeds the rollback rate of 4.97 percent and that the portion required by state law was higher than the rollback by 4.38 percent. The board then voted to adopt the required local effort of 3.101 mills, a basic discretionary rate of 0.748 mills and a local capital outlay rate of 1.5 mills, and afterward adopted the 2025-26 budget.

The vote followed a budget briefing from Bonnie Penner, the district's financial director, who said the district closed fiscal 2024-25 using the third FEFP calculation and is still awaiting a fourth calculation from the state. "The third calculation came out very, very late, and now again…