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CFO outlines FY27 budget parameters as staff detail $420,000 mental-health grant spending plan
Summary
CFO Janice Bloodworth outlined FY27 budget priorities and projected a $21 million draw from fund balance; staff described a state-funded student mental-health grant (~$420,000) and plans to contract counseling services for middle and high schools.
Janice Bloodworth, the district's chief financial officer, presented projected budget parameters for fiscal year 2027 during the March 9 work session and sought direction from the board.
Bloodworth said the district now projects using about $21 million of fund balance (down from an originally budgeted $25 million), leaving a projected starting fund balance of roughly $83 million for FY27. She listed strategic priorities for allocations: early literacy and numeracy, differentiated resources, reducing chronic absenteeism, college and career readiness, staff recruitment and retention, and maintaining core services. The district plans to hold the millage rate steady and to designate $500,000 for non–East Bluffs capital projects and to maintain a minimum 60-day unassigned fund balance.
In procurement and operating items, staff presented purchase-exception requests (elementary science kits totaling $166,505.21 and reading resources) and several purchase-order increases, including staffing-services vendor ESS (total expenditures cited in the packet) and food-supply vendors.
On student mental health, Kenya Gilmore detailed a state allocation tied to the FY26 state budget and explained the district received about $420,000 to provide behavioral and mental-health services at middle and high schools. Gilmore said the grant requires direct services to students and that the district plans to contract with external vendors (including a vendor referenced as "This Works") to provide small-group and individual counseling, social-skills building and a tier‑1 online program called Compass. She emphasized that grant-funded positions could be temporary if statewide allocations are not renewed.
Board members asked clarifying questions about fund-balance uses, vendor choices, and whether grant funding could support positions; staff said positions could be funded but would carry the risk of loss if grant funding is not continued statewide. The work session recorded discussion and recommendations but no formal votes on budget parameters in the transcript.
