The Polk County Board of Education will be gathering for a special called session on Monday, June 29 to determine their 2021 fiscal year budget.

The meeting is being held at the Central Office at 612 S. College St., Cedartown at 6 p.m. to determine the FY 2021 budget, which is being decided just ahead of the start of the new fiscal year as the district awaits the final result of the FY 2021 state budget, according to Superintendent Laurie Atkins.

Funding for the upcoming school year will be mainly based on state funds, which cover a majority of teacher salaries locally. Numbers were advertised and public hearings were held to cover $83,880,725 in revenue. $13 million of that is in local taxes, or 19% of the total revenue taken into fund local schools.

The state’s portion of the revenue projected in the tentative FY 2021 budget was more than $67 million, which might be reduced depending on what state leaders decide in Atlanta as the final days of the legislative session wrap up after a delay due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Usually the state budget is finalized in the spring as the session closes 40 days of work at the capitol.

Projected school expenditures tally up to $72,122,077 for the year, which would leave an ending balance of more than $11.7 million for the school board to utilize in an emergency. With that figure included, it balances the budget for FY 2021 if the numbers hold true for the state’s portion of funding.

Included in budget figures are just over $3.5 million in debt service in other funds for the year, based off of E-SPLOST collections, and more than $5.2 million in school nutrition funds that cover free student breakfast and lunches. (See the link for the full budget expenditures.)