Savannah-Chatham schools present preliminary $666 million budget; public raises ESOL transparency and transportation concerns

Paige Cooley, budget director for Savannah-Chatham County Public School System, presented the district’s preliminary budget at a public hearing on Wednesday, May 14, saying projected general-fund revenues total $665,400,000 and projected expenditures total $666,000,000 for the coming fiscal year.

The hearing matters because the district faces a narrow projected use of fund balance and several large, moving parts — an uncertain federal funding picture, a pending tax digest, and planned millage-rate hearings in June that will influence final revenue estimates.

Cooley outlined key drivers behind the proposed budget, saying “Our general fund projected revenue increase for this year is $45,900,000 and that is based on a 10% increase in the tax digest.” She told the hearing the local-share increase under that assumption would be $36,900,000 and that the state’s QBE allotment is preliminarily up $9,000,000; federal revenues remain “an unknown question mark” and were not increased in the projection. Cooley said the district’s millage rate has fallen from 18.881 mills in 2020–21 to 17.481 mills in fiscal year 2025 and noted the district will hold two millage hearings June 11 and a third hearing June 17.

On the expenditure side, Cooley listed mandated and cost pressures: a $3,400,000 rise in teachers’ retirement contributions, an $8,400,000 increase in state health insurance, a $4,200,000 personnel step increase, a projected $2,000,000 charter-school cost increase, and an $8,600,000 allocation for a 3% cost-of-living adjustment in other operating costs. She also identified net program investments including high-dosage tutoring ($250,000), differentiated school support ($750,000), expanded early childhood education ($20,000), and pool repairs and operations ($975,000). Cooley said the budget includes an increase to the district’s vacancy factor by $10,000,000 and $10,000,000 in central-office reductions.

Cooley described fund totals across all funds: capital projects of about $162,000,000 and total revenues across all funds of $939,200,000 with total expenditures of $941,600,000. She reiterated that federal special-revenue funds — more than $100 million in the presentation — remain uncertain.

Public commenters addressed the budget and specific district practices. Rick Rooney said he “supports the budget as proposed by Dr. Watts and her team,” praised the return-on-investment work referenced in the presentation and voiced support for leadership development in low-performing schools, high-dosage tutoring, literacy training for teachers and expanded early education. Deborah Johnson identified herself as a parent and resident and said she attended to learn how government funding will affect the district.

Christina Magana, a representative of Migrant Equity Southeast, thanked district leaders for the budget work but urged greater transparency for English learner services. Magana said some English learners “have been here for 2 years and still have not learned English” and described cases where staff paid from Title III were pulled from ESL instruction to cover substitute or testing duties. She asked that “there should be a clear standard of quality education [ESL] students receive and not just the luck of the draw where they happen to live or go to school.” Magana also requested clearer definitions for the line item described as an “increase of media translations as measured by the number of documents translated,” and noted that website forms to request to speak to the board remain available only in English. She added that choice-school transportation gaps “disproportionately impacts low income students.”

No motions or votes were taken during the hearing; the session consisted of the staff presentation and public comment. Cooley’s presentation described the district’s budget-development timeline, including the upcoming millage hearings that will precede final adoption decisions.

The district’s next steps named in the presentation are the June 11 and June 17 millage hearings and continued monitoring of the assessor’s tax digest and federal funding levels before finalizing the budget.