Cobb school board scheduled to adopt fiscal year 2021 budget

Cobb schools FY 2021 budget

A final public forum on the proposed $1.13 billion fiscal year 2021 budget and final adoption are on the docket for the Cobb Board of Education on Thursday.

The meetings will be held virtually, as they have been since the COVID-19 crisis began in March.

A virtual budget public forum will begin at 9:30 a.m. Thursday and you can watch by clicking here. There are instructions on that link for anyone who wishes to call in to comment and participate in the budget forum via Zoom.

The school board will hold a voting meeting after its 10 a.m. work session and an executive session. The agenda for the voting meeting includes an item for final budget adoption.

You can view the agendas for both public meetings on Thursday by clicking here. The board in July adopted a tentative budget, which is a formality before final adoption.

Although the Cobb County School District’s fiscal year began on July 1, a budget hasn’t been adopted due to delays in the legislature adopting the state budget. The Georgia General Assembly session was delayed because of COVID-19, and its final budget was passed in June.

Nearly half of Cobb County School District funding comes from the state, which is cutting that amount this year by $62 million.

To help close that gap, the district is proposing $31 million in reserve funds to help offset the state budget cuts. Cobb school funding under Georgia’s Quality Basic Education Act is expected to be $518 million.

The district’s proposed budget includes a step salary increase for all eligible staff members. (You can read through budget overview information here).

(More financials, including line-item details, can be found here in what’s called the budget popular report.)