There’s still hope that if the budget figures are right, Jackson County School System employees may not have as many furlough days as currently planned.
Superintendent Shannon Adams said Monday that the almost-completed Jackson County tax digest is slated to drop three percent. He warned last month that local property taxes paid to the school system could drop anywhere from five to 20 percent.
Adams said he was “mildly encouraged” about the better-than-expected tax digest numbers provided by county tax commissioner Don Elrod.
“Those numbers sound somewhat encouraging — compared to what we talked about at one point in time,” Adams said.
And if the tax digest shakes out with better numbers, it could mean that the school system drops two additional furlough days that it added to the school system calendar last month because of budget concerns.
The Jackson County School System initially had eight furlough days for its employees for the 2011-2012 school year, but later added the two additional days — bringing the total to 10 furlough days. The two additional furlough days will take place during teacher pre-planning and post-planning, and won’t affect students’ schedules.
But since the tax digest wasn’t finalized on Monday — and district officials still had questions about certain exemptions — the Jackson County Board of Education didn’t approve a tentative budget for the new fiscal year, which started on July 1.
Instead, the board adopted its second spending resolution for the fiscal year to allow the school system to operate in August. That resolution says the district can’t spend more than 1/12th of the final amended budget for the 2011 fiscal year.
Once the county finalizes its tax digest, the board of education is expected to hold a called meeting to adopt a tentative budget. Adams said he expects that the tax digest may be completed this week.
