BOE Approves July Spending Resolution

The Stephens County Board of Education approves a resolution to allow normal spending to continue into the start of a new fiscal year while a Fiscal Year 2016 budget is finalized.

Tuesday, the Board voted unanimously to approve a July spending resolution.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said that the spending resolution allows the board to budget and spend 1/12th of the current fiscal year’s budget during the month of July.

“It just gives the Board an opportunity to keep paying checks until having the chance to do final budget approval,” said Dorsey.

Dorsey said that he does not expect the Board of Education to need to have to approve a spending resolution for any other months as he expects to finalize the Fiscal Year 2016 budget next month.

Fiscal Year 2016 starts on July 1.

The superintendent said that he is currently still working on the draft Fiscal Year 2016 budget that will be presented to the Stephens County Board of Education for its consideration.

He said that a number of factors have led to the need to push completing a budget for Fiscal Year 2016 into the month of July.

Those include having the new finance director settling in, wanting to make sure the school system has the most accurate numbers possible, and having multiple school board members not being able to attend meetings in June.

Dorsey said he hopes to have a tentative budget ready to go and present to the board perhaps as early as the second week of July.

He said he does feel good about how the Fiscal Year 2016 budget is coming together at this point.

According to Dorsey, the school system is seeing the savings that it had been projecting from changes implemented over recent months, including the school re-structuring.

The Stephens County Board of Education did also use similar monthly spending resolutions last year to allow operations to continue until the Fiscal Year 2015 budget gained approval in September 2014.