Rome City School District finance staff flag roughly $13M gap in next-year planning; budget review to continue

Finance staff presented a baseline budget estimate for the coming school year and warned the board of a significant planning gap.

The finance presenter said the district’s expense base includes salaries (~$66 million), utilities (~$4.5 million), insurance and benefits (~$41 million) and debt service (~$8.3 million). Operational and maintenance costs and contractual obligations push estimated expenditures to about $154,000,000.

On the revenue side the presenter said the district modeled conservative state aid and local revenues and estimated about $103,000,000–$104,000,000 in receipts under current assumptions. “So my next steps will be to obviously wait until February to get the preliminary from the governor to know what we’re looking at for a true revenue piece,” the presenter said.

Using the presenter’s high-level figures, the district faces an operating gap that would be partly covered by fund balance and reserves; the presenter said the modeled gap is roughly $13,000,000 and will be refined by the finance committee in coming weeks. The presenter said the cabinet and finance committee will review line-by-line expenses and look for cost-savings to reduce reliance on reserves.

Board members asked clarifying questions about the assumptions behind the numbers and possible savings in contractual and insurance costs. Finance staff said more detailed revenue estimates will be available after the state’s preliminary aid run in February and that the finance committee will meet next week to begin deeper review.

The board did not vote on the budget at the meeting; staff framed these figures as high-level planning estimates subject to revision.