The DeKalb County School Board adopted its proposed 2025-26 budget last Thursday evening, which included funds for the purchase of land for future school building projects. 

The budget was approved 7-0 from members Danny Parkerson, Alan Hayes, Jim Beshearse, Eric Ervin, Megan Moore, Jason Miller, and Shaun Tubbs, and sets aside $1.3 million from its $13 million school reserves for the future purchase of land for a new high school or middle school. No location has been identified and officials say that with a new elementary school currently funded by local option sales tax revenue, it would be many years before another project moves forward.

The new school budget includes $2,000 teacher bonuses from the state, through the voucher program, to those who qualify, and $2,000 bonuses funded locally to those educators who don’t qualify for the state bonuses. Support staff would each get a $1,000 bonus funded locally.

“After passing the resolution that we would accept the state bonuses for teachers, we went ahead and put that money in our budget, which will be roughly $500,000 for those teachers that qualified for it,” said Director of Schools Patrick Cripps.

“But everybody deserves something, so those educators not on the list, that would not have received a bonus, we put it in our budget so they can receive the same amount as those who are on the list so they will clear $2,000. In addition, the support staff will get a bonus, and they will clear $1,000. That puts the total local allocation for bonuses at $245,000,” Director Cripps explained.

“Other than step raises and the bonuses nothing additional in salaries will be in the budget. What we are doing this year is strictly from what the state is sending us and what will come from our reserves to cover the rest,” Cripps said.

Also during the meeting, the school board awarded a $400,000 bid, for a project to build walls inside DeKalb Middle School. The project will be carried out over the summer and will be funded from within the budget without dipping into the schools’ reserves or fund balance.

“The big thing with this budget and for the last couple of years is a big increase in insurance. We knew this year we had to do some budget amendments to get the insurance covered. For this budget we increased our budget line for insurance so that made our budget climb,” said Director Cripps.

Director Cripps said the 2024-25 schools operating budget may come close to balancing by year’s end. “I think we will hit right on the mark with our budget this year. If we had not done the DMS walls I think we would be under budget for the year.”

Director Cripps will now present the proposed 2025-26 school budget to the DeKalb County Budget Committee for approval.