“Everything is looking good so far, barring any unforeseen State health increases between now and the end of the year.”

At the start of every year, the Board of Education nominates its new chairperson and vice chairperson. During the January 12th Board meeting, however, the Board decided to postpone its nomination and election of these positions. Early in the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Ben Desper made a motion to temporarily name Wendy Lowe as chairperson and Byron Long as vice chairperson until the February meeting. Ms. Lowe and Mr. Long held these same positions for 2011. Next month, during the February meeting, the Board will nominate and elect board members to serve for the 2012 year as chair person and vice chairperson. Desper, though, did not say why he postponed the election. Following this decision, Chief Financial Officer Amy Burgess delivered the first financial report of the year.

“As of January 5th,” Burgess said, “we collected 60.67 percent of our budgeted revenue of the (fiscal) year,” but ad valorem taxes “were just shy of 80 percent collection.”

Burgess also gave the SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) III report. In December, the BOE collected $328,567.13, with an earned interest of $2867.28. Burgess also said that with this money, the Board has written two checks, one for a project at Pickens County Middle School and the other for a project at Pickens High School. These projects, she said, are “perfectly acceptable expenditures” for SPLOST money. As of December 31st, the SPLOST III balance is $3,814,427.19. Burgess noted that most of this money will be used to pay bond payments. According to Burgess, the Board will receive one more SPLOST III check in January and said that the Board is $3 million behind the original projection given in 2005 or 2006. In February SPLOST IV will begin to take place, Burgess said.

During Burgess’ discussion on expenditures, she quipped,

“Everything is looking good so far, barring any unforeseen State health increases between now and the end of the year.”

Although the comment seemed flippant, it touched upon a growing concern for the Superintendent and the district: the increase cost of health insurance. In a recent conversation with FYN, Burgess said that health costs for classified employees more than doubled in the past year and she expects more increases in 2012. When asked if the district has budgeted for upcoming insurance hikes, she said that she will be attending meetings to address future increases and their effects on the budget.