The Henry County Board of Education gave final approval to the 2019-2020 budget at its June 10 meeting while also approving a revamped code of conduct and a sizable purchase of educational resources for all grades.
The final general fund budget total of $407,152,238 is exactly the same as it was last month when the tentative budget was adopted. The last major financial move for the school board is next month’s adoption of the millage, but that has been maxed out at 20 mills for more than a decade and highly unlikely to change.
The district’s fund reserve is slated to be $50 million when the next fiscal year begins July 1 and is expected to increase during the next 12 months, as revenue is projected to be $2.5 million more than expenditures.
Officials reported in May that tax digest projections and state funding totals were about $5 million higher than believed to be in earlier reports.
Enrollment for the fall has been tabbed at 43,309 students, which means the budget averages out to $9,343 per student. That is the sixth-highest average among the state’s 10 largest districts. The county also reports the lowest central office expenditures per student out of any of those districts.
The code of conduct which was approved by the board was overhauled with the goal of “clarity, consistency, and effectiveness,” according to a staff report, as well as being “comprehensive, progressive, and supportive.”
Various guidelines regarding progressive discipline for “behavior detrimental to learning” were divided into levels based upon the severity of the offense, ranging from verbal warning to out-of-school suspensions to disciplinary hearings that could result in expulsion. An example included in the staff report laid out Level 1 discipline, with the minimum being a “verbal warning and alternative resolution” and the maximum an out-of-school suspension for 1 day (elementary school) or 2 days (middle and high school). Unexcused tardies to class can be considered “behavior detrimental to learning” according to the report.
A number of comments from the recent 30-day public review period were included in the presentation for the record. The complete code of conduct can be found on the district’s website.
This entire process was spurred by a January incident in which an honor student at Austin Road Middle School received a 10-day suspension for unwittingly using a counterfeit $20 bill to pay for his lunch. His parents’ pleas at a subsequent disciplinary hearing were initially ignored, but after the story broke on Atlanta TV news outlets and a firestorm of negative comments on social media, superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis made an executive decision to return the student to class and ordered an immediate review of the entire code of conduct.
The board voted to spend $16 million over eight years on new core learning resources for all grades and core subjects. That total comes out to $43 per student, a drop from the current district expense of $105 and the U.S. average of $80-100, according to district officials.
The acquisition includes both print and digital resources, which were available for community and teacher review during the month of May. Feedback was given by 249 people, including teachers at all 50 schools in the district. Officials said the list price for all of the programs being acquired would have been $42 million, so the district is getting the materials at a 62-percent discount. All of the funds are coming from the school SPLOST. The contract is year to year per legal requirements.
