CORRECTION: This story has been updated to reflect that a SCCPSS school board member read a deletion and two revisions during a special called meeting to adopt the FY23 school budget.
After fielding concerns from Chatham County residents about a line-itemerror in the budget and the millage rate, the Savannah-Chatham County Public Schools voted to pass the $775million budget for fiscal year 2023, which will include pay increases for non-teaching staff.
The budget passed 7-2 with District 4 and District 7 board members Shawn Kachmar and Michael Johnson voting nay.
However, residents largely homed in on the$75-milllion budget line item first discovered by Jasmine Polley, a parent who ran for school board in May. Polley lost her race to District 8incumbent Tonia Howard-Hall. The $75-million budget line item was allocated to Data and Accountability.
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"I'm a little disappointed that they went forward and they voted on the budget, becausethere were a lot of public comments of people not trusting the process and not having faith in having an accurate budget," Polley told the Savannah Morning News after the meeting. "I was hoping they would at leaststop and say, 'Let's look at this a little bit more.'"
Residents call for school budget audit
During public comment, residents called for an audit of the budget and for two additional hearings to be held since Tuesday night's hearing before the board meeting was the first with the corrected budget.
Spokespersons for the district told news media at Wednesday night's board meeting that the $75-million was always intended to be in the capital—not operating — budget as part ofthe Education Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax, or ESPLOST, allocation. The corrected budget was posted on the school district's website but was not shared on its social media page.
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"They can paint it up however they want," Polley said. "It was still an error.Even if it was an accounting systems error, it was still an error. And you can't help but wonder if there was that one accounting systems error.How many other accounting system errors are there?"
During the meeting, Kachmarexplained to residents the board is already audited by a third-party external auditor to ensure the school system is fiscally compliant.
Millage rate decreases
Apart from budget concerns, some residents asked for even steeperrollbackin the millage rate than the .50 decrease thathadbeen proposed,with many pointing to increases in property assessments.
"We've seen major, major property increases in this area. We see the house flipping that's going on. We know that that plays a major role," said Ben Adams, a lifelong District 5 resident. "We see the short-term rentals that are coming in...do us a favor during this inflation period and tighten up the belt a little."
The current millage rate will decrease from 18.131 to 17.631, or a .50 mill decrease.The millagerate is the tax rate that isused tocalculate local property taxes and represents the tax imposed on every $1,000 of a property's assessed value.
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Because overall assessed property values increased, resulting in a rise in local revenues, the district wasable to reduce the school millage rate and still remain in budget, Sheila Blanco,the district's communication director, previously told the Savannah Morning News.
Residents also raised the concern that the burden to fund the school district is placed on them and has been more of a burden with rising inflation.
District 7 board member Michael Johnson agreed with many of the residents concerns, saying he wished the board had more time to look at the budget before it was passed.
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"I feel like if Ihad enough time to go over the budget, not just when we get to the tentative budget, but before we get to these meetings, that we could find (inconsistencies) or ask questions," Johnson said, but stopped short of asking to tablefor a vote. He did call for reinstatingthe district's budget committee.
While board members empathized with residents, many took the position thatthe budget increase will help increase pay for employees, some of which saw pay as low as $11.
"I want to make sure that we understand that we make increases in the budget and bring the people at the bottom of the ground at higher level," District 5 board member Irene Gadson-Hines said.
The FY2023 budget goes into effect July 1.
Budget vote questioned
Aside from the budget and millage rate, residents also raised concerns about the procedure for approving the budget after it appeared the agenda was approved with deletion of three line items, including adopting of the FY23 budget.
"I'm a little confused of why they actually did vote on the budget," Polley said, noting she re-watched a recording of the board meeting to confirm what she'd heard.
In an email to the Savannah Morning News, school spokesperson Sheila Blancosaid Howard-Hallread the change:“I move that the agenda be approved with the following changes:deletion of item 6.03-Appointments and revisions to items 6.04-Reassignments and Salary Adjustments and items 8.04-Final Adoption of the Fiscal Year 2023 Budget for All Funds.”
The exact agenda item related to adoption of the budget, however, was 7.04, Blanco confirmed."I understand that the sentence does sound confusing because Dr. Howard-Hall did not pause between saying '6.03-Appointments' and the words 'and revisions to items,'" Blancoclarified byemail.
Raisa is a watchdog and investigative reporter for the Savannah Morning News.Contact her at rhabersham@gannett.com.
