The
Coweta
County
Board of
Education
voted to
approve
a 2007
millage
rate of
18.59
mills
for
maintenance
and
operation
of the
school
system’s
2007-08
school
year, at
a called
meeting
on July
26.
The vote
followed
three
public
hearings
– two
held on
July 19,
and one
held
before
the 6:30
p.m.
called
board
meeting
– that
the
Board
held
before
setting
this
year’s
millage
rate.
The
board’s
action
held
property
tax
rates at
the same
level
since it
was set
at 18.54
mills
2004.
The
board
also
voted to
maintain
the ad
valorem
rate for
bond
payments
at 0.00
mills.
Leaving
the
property
tax at
the same
millage
rate is
expected
to
increase
revenues
to the
Coweta
County
School
System
by 0.29
percent
over the
rollback
millage
rate,
which
necessitated
the
public
hearings.
The
property
tax
revenue
generated
by 18.59
mills of
ad
valorem
tax will
fund the
local
share of
the
school
system’s
total
operating
budget
for
Coweta
County’s
29
schools
and
other
facilities.
The
Board of
Education
approved
a
maintenance
and
operation
budget
for the
school
system
of
$166.5
million
for the
2007-08
school
year in
June
(for a
fiscal
year
beginning
on July
1,
2007).
The
General
Fund
budget
is the
operating
budget
for the
school
system,
and is
funded
by a
combination
of state
revenue
and
local
taxes.
The
General
Fund
includes
instructional
funds,
school
system
personnel,
pupil
services,
school
maintenance
and
operation,
transportation
and
other
day-to-day
costs of
operating
the
school
systems.
The
school
system’s
budget
also
projects
the use
of up to
$3.5
million
in
reserves
to
balance
the
budget.
A
similar
amount
of
reserve
spending
was
budgeted
for the
2006-07
school
year,
though
the
school
system
actually
ended
the
2006-07
school
year far
enough
under
budget
that no
reserves
were
spent.
The
general
fund
budget
of
$166,525,599
adopted
by the
school
board
for
2007-08
was an
increase
of $12.2
million
over
last
year’s
general
fund
budget
of
$154,276,878.
Outside
of the
$166
million
Operations
Budget,
other
school
system
budgets
include
the
Special
Revenue
Fund
(which
accounts
for
state
and
federal
funding
sent to
special
federal
programs
such as
Title I
and
federal
lunch
programs),
the
Capital
Projects
Fund
(for
construction)
and the
Debt
Service
fund.
School
construction
and debt
service
are
funded
principally
by the
Special
Purpose
Local
Option
Sales
Tax (SPLOST)
funds
and some
state
funding.
Those
budgets,
combined
with the
Operations
Budget,
total
$248
million.
School
System
comptroller
Keith
Chapman
reported
that
most of
this
year’s
increase
in the
school
system’s
Operations
Budget
is
driven
by
personnel
costs
(including
new
teachers
to keep
up with
student
growth),
step
raises
and a 3%
cost-of-living
raise to
all
employees.