Bibb County schools outline FY26 budget options, including 3% raises and new positions amid projected deficits

Eric Busch, a district finance presenter, told the Bibb County School Board on May 5, "Today, we are holding our second work session for the FY 26 fiscal year 26 general fund budget." The presentation laid out revenue updates, mandated cost increases, staffing and program priorities, and four budget scenarios the board will use ahead of a tentative adoption scheduled for May 15.

The board was shown projections the district used to build the FY26 plan: a projected total enrollment of 21,436 students (10,679 elementary; 4,714 middle; 6,035 high), a staff allocation need of about 2,146 positions (an increase of roughly 12.75 positions), and a $289.7 million preliminary budget. Busch said the superintendent’s budget focuses on recruitment and retention, literacy, attendance interventions and leadership capacity.

Why it matters: the district faces mandated increases in state health insurance and teacher retirement costs, an estimated $5.5 million increase in health-care costs for 2026 (about $10 million over four years), and a $9.1 million decrease in equalization aid. Those forces, combined with current revenue estimates, produce multi-million-dollar deficits under several scenarios presented to the board.

Key numbers and scenarios presented

- State allotment update: staff reported an additional $2.2 million in state revenue on the final allotment sheet since the last work session; a small increase in the equalization grant was also noted.

- Savings and adjustments: removal of a textbook-adoption line saved $4.5 million (the district said the current ELA adoption is a six-year cycle adopted in 2021), and department heads reduced operational budgets by about $1.5 million through lower estimates on supplies, travel, utilities, insurance and maintenance.

- Salary choices: the staff offered multiple options — no salary increase (a $17 million deficit in FY26), a 3% across-the-board increase, and a scenario that pairs a 3% certified raise with implementation of a classified salary schedule (estimated implementation cost $2.4 million). A scenario that also counts a roughly 1-mill revenue increase (about $5.9 million) and reduces roughly 30 routinely vacant positions reduced the FY26 deficit but still projected multi-year fund-balance pressure.

- Fund balance outlook: in a no-increase scenario the fund-balance-to-expense ratio would fall to 2.68% by 2028; with other options it still dipped near or below 8% in later years in the models presented.

Staffing, priorities and proposed new positions

Busch walked the board through specific position requests tied to the district’s priorities: a truancy specialist to address attendance, a K–5 English language arts coordinator, a leadership-coaching position to provide school-level daily support for principals and coaches, an assistant athletic director, reclassification of director-level roles to executive director status (elementary services and maintenance), conversion of four 4-hour custodial posts into two full-time site-support custodians, reclassifying an accounting clerk to an accountant to handle student activity accounts, and reclassifying the Student Information System manager to a coordinator. The classified-salary implementation would decompress the pay scale, adding steps and raising the average classified adjustment by roughly $1,500, staff said.

Board questions and concerns

Board members pressed for specifics and expressed concern about adding fixed personnel costs during a tight budget year. Dr. Fickland asked why new positions were proposed when vacancies had been frozen; Busch replied the presentation identifies needs the district believes are necessary to move forward and noted the district freezes some vacancies but still adds targeted roles tied to instructional or operational priorities. Dr. Fickland and others said they preferred larger increases for teachers if possible; the superintendent and staff responded that the combined implementation of the certified raise and classified schedule yields roughly a 3.3% average increase across the payroll in the scenario presented.

Other operational items mentioned

- Transportation and meals: the district currently transports about 8,500 students daily on more than 200 buses and provides approximately 26,000 meals per day, figures Busch provided as context for operational costs.

- Summer school: staff said summer programming will operate at select sites (not every school) and that transportation is provided for students who attend those sites; board members asked for clarity on coverage.

- Grants and external risks: board members asked about voucher counts and school-based mental health grant changes; Busch and staff said voucher counts from the state were not yet available and that a grant referenced by staff had been paused for certain phases and was under review.

Next steps

Busch told the board the timeline includes a tentative budget adoption on May 15 and two public hearings before a final adoption at the June board meeting; if tax-digest information arrives in between, staff will refine numbers before adoption. No formal budget vote occurred at the May 5 work session.

Ending

Board members agreed to continue one-on-one conversations with staff and to review the scenarios ahead of the May 15 tentative adoption.