CCSD Budget Jumps 12%

And the hits just keep on coming. At its voting session last evening, the Clarke County School District finally got around to releasing some information about its "tentative" FY 2009 budget. The total budget comes to $134,719,257 ($124,725,232 for the general fund budget, $9,244,025 in an uncommitted reserve, and $750,000 in contingency funds - see "Budget Summary"). This represents a staggering increase of $14,450,042, or 12%, over the current budget of $120,269,215 (see "Budget Reductions"). Even if one allows for an increased student population and inflation, this is still a massive jump in spending.

In the Banner-Herald article, District officials cited climbing fuel costs as one rationale for the budget increase:

This year, the district spent about $200,000 more on fuel than it had budgeted, according to Ted Gilbert, assistant superintendent for district services. And Thursday night, the school board approved a tentative $134 million budget that includes $106,000 in increased spending on fuel.

Fair enough. The fact that the CCSD horribly overspends on transportation is nothing new, however, and this trend is a longstanding one. I previously noted that, according to Georgia Department of Education figures for FY 2007, the District spent almost 75% above the state average (it spends considerably above the state average on the other six categories measured by the DOE as well).

Transportation is an obvious area in which to cut back. That observation, though, merely prompts the obvious follow up question - what about the other $14 million and change?