The Henry County Board of Education’s August 24 special called meeting included a discussion about the possibility of bringing students back to campus sooner rather than later.

  At the same meeting, the board voted unanimously to approve a $373.5 million budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2021.

  Data regarding COVID-19 effects in the county was shared by superintendent Mary Elizabeth Davis, who pointed out that a new feature of the district website will include regularly updated numbers on the pandemic. Those numbers now indicate that the rolling 14-day average of positive cases per 100,000 residents has been steadily declining over the past month.  Of the new cases that have been confirmed in the last week alone, those numbers represent only 0.14 percent of the county’s population.

  The improving numbers make up one of four total requirements for allowing students to return to campus.  Combined with extensive internal and external stakeholder feedback, district officials continue to study districts across the state that have allowed the return-to-campus option combined with ongoing rigorous preparation.

   According to officials, spiking numbers of COVID-19 cases in mid-July moved the board from a planned hybrid model of on-campus and virtual learning for this fall to a delayed start to the school year and the decision to begin fully virtual. The preparations that were completed ahead of the originally designated start date remain and some have been enhanced for the time designated for students to be able to return.

   All efforts are contained in the district’s Return-to-Campus playbook, and include a focus on facilities, transportation, training, piloting of gradual and staggered returns, and a COVID-19 positive-case protocol for all schools and district operations.

  The four gradual transition phases identified by the district begin with the return of remaining school-based employees and the confirmation of each family’s preferred learning option. The progression would end with students at all levels who choose to do so returning to campus full-time.

  The budget was finally adopted three months later than usual, after delays caused by the March suspension of the Georgia General Assembly’s 2020 legislative session. The budget is typically adopted in May, but the local school district did not know the amount of state funding for the coming year until late June.

  The final budget numbers show a decrease from the year before.  Last year, the board passed the largest budget in school district history, but COVID-19’s statewide economic impact and other state funding source reductions resulted in a $41 million shortfall for district revenues.  Part of this included austerity cuts passed in the state government’s final budget.  All school districts across the state experienced at least a 10 percent drop in funding from state revenue sources when the General Assembly completed their budget process.

   To help make up some of the difference in lower revenue streams, the district used a combination of savings, stronger local revenues, increased student identification and reporting efforts, and a federal assistance grant to arrive at a budget that will help the district maintain its necessary operational functions.

  The newly approved budget includes no furlough days while also honoring all salary scales and applicable steps for years of service accrued.  There were also school-level personnel support additions and a maintaining of all school budgets. To make these items possible, district office budgets saw declines and there were hiring freezes on various positions.