Local school district discusses budget ahead of new school year

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – The start of the new school year is just around the corner.

On Tuesday, the Columbus Municipal School District held special meeting to address this year’s budget as they head into the new year.

The school district will begin the year with roughly $4.5 million in its general fund balance, and a little more than $2 million in its reserves.

District leaders said the good news is there won’t be a tax increase.

The new budget included hiring roughly 30 new employees, as well as paying teachers a one-time signing bonus and district-wide pay raises.

The district has close to 550 employees to begin the year.

CMSD said it wanted to address the needs of the district which is why they’re hiring a psychologist, psychometrist, behavior specialist, along with bringing in academic coaches for the upcoming school year.

“One of the financial management goals of CMSD is to ensure that we are being financially responsible with the taxpayer’s money,” said Tammie Holmes, Chief Financial Officer for the CMSD.  “We want to make sure that we appropriate the dollars in the right place to give our kids the best opportunity and to give them the best education. We also want to make sure that we have at least 15% fund balance on hand at all times, and we want to make sure that we continue to be transparent with the public and to do the best that we can with those resources that we have been given.”

Earlier this year, state lawmakers agreed to give teachers a $1,500 pay raise this year.

However, some teachers were excluded from the bill.

Now, school districts will have to pay for those raises then be in reimbursed by the state.

CMSD leaders said they have enough money to fund teachers those pay raises and still be in a good place financially.