Pickens County board reviews tentative school budget, delays final approval pending tax digest

Pickens County School Board on Thursday reviewed a tentative general fund budget for the upcoming school year and heard that staff will hold final approval until the county tax digest is received.

Miss Smith, a staff member, told the board the budget process has included two workshops and one prior public hearing on July 10. “In this budget, in our general fund, we did have a 1% increase to our local certified supplement. We did have a 1.13% increase in the mandatory TRS contribution,” Miss Smith said. She also said the budget reflects a state health benefit mandatory increase.

The staff presentation listed a requested general fund expenditure total of $63,809,822 and said that level of spending would draw down the fund balance slightly. Miss Smith said the combined increases for TRS and state health were cited in the meeting as “over $1,100,000,000.” That figure appears to be a transcription error in the meeting record and inconsistent with other figures discussed; the meeting did not provide a corrected numeric total for those two items.

The board opened a public comment period on the tentative budget but no members of the public spoke, and the board did not take final budget action on Thursday. Miss Smith said the board will wait for the official tax digest before asking for final approval; she indicated the digest’s timing could delay a final vote by several weeks.

Separately during the meeting, the board approved a personnel action report following a motion and second. The board also approved the meeting agenda at the start of the session and then adjourned.

No formal vote tallies with named members were recorded in the meeting transcript for the agenda approval or personnel action approval; the chair called for “all in favor” and the motions were approved by voice vote as reflected in the minutes.

The board also confirmed that because it made tentative budget approval in July it did not need a separate spending resolution at this time.

The meeting lasted only a few minutes and devoted most of its time to the budget presentation and routine business; there were no public comments, no amendments to the tentative budget and no final appropriation or tax rate adoption at the session.