Fort Mill school leaders approve $164M budget, will hire more teachers, bus drivers
The Fort Mill school district is planning to hire more teachers and bus drivers and open two new elementary schools.
The board of trustees has approved the district’s $164.4 million general fund budget for 2020-21, a release states.
The district approved increasing taxes that help fund school operations but is decreasing taxes related to paying debt, said Joe Burke, district spokesperson. Overall, businesses will spend less in taxes related to school funding.
Tax increases related to school operations apply only to businesses, non-owner occupied homes and rental properties. Act 388 shifted the property tax burden from owner-occupied homes onto businesses and secondary homes.
Homeowners will see a decrease in taxes that pay for school district debt, Burke said.
Impact fees played a part in the district’s ability to decrease taxes related to school debt, Burke said.
Budget highlights include:
- Salaries and benefits make up 89% of the district’s expenditures.
- The budget includes $1.4 million for a salary service credit for all employees.
- $4.3 million is included for 50 new classroom teachers
- $2.63 million is included for opening King’s Town Elementary (new positions, utilities and cleaning services)
- $2.62 million is included for opening River Trail Elementary (new positions, utilities and cleaning services)
- $224,940 is included to hire special education classroom assistants
- $230,000 is included to hire 10 new bus drivers
The budget factors 2019-20’s base student cost of $2,485. The base student cost has not been set by the state for 2020-21. The district plans to have more than 17,850 students enrolled for the upcoming school year, up from 16,829 currently.
State funding for school districts could be impacted by COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.
“Not all districts are moving forward with passing budgets at this time due to complications from the pandemic. Our district felt it was important to have a board approved budget and that we were financially sound to take this step,” Burke wrote in an e-mail to The Herald.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 10:40 AM.
