When the Carter County School System presents its proposed budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year the county’s Budget Committee on Monday, they will be requesting additional funds to add another school resource officer and provide raises for the system’s paraprofessionals.

Members of the Carter County Board of Education met in a budget workshop session Thursday afternoon to discuss changes in the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The school system’s overall budget is balanced, Director of Schools Dr. Kevin Ward told the Board. However, he explained, when he presents the budget to the Budget Committee, he will be asking the County Commission to provide $60,000 to fund a 1 percent raise for the school system’s para-professionals to begin implementing the wage increases recommended by the recently completed salary analysis.

Ward said he would also be asking the county’s governing body to provide around $35,000 to fund an additional school resource officer position. Currently, the school system and Carter County Sheriff’s Office partner to provide 14 SROs to serve the county’s 15 schools. In recent months, the subject of adding an SRO for Little Milligan Elementary has been a hot topic of debate at meetings of the County Commission and Board of Education.

“I think we need to do that, both projects,” said Board of Education member David Buck said.

One of the biggest challenges the school system faced in preparing the proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year was in dealing with an insurance increase. The total cost of the insurance increase for the system was $291,804.80. The blow was softened when the state allocated $119,000 in additional revenue from the Basic Education Program (BEP) funding to help cover the cost of the increase. That left the school system searching for $172,804.80 to fund the insurance cost as well as other expenditure increases.

The overall increase in expenditures for the new year’s budget is $819,863, which includes the new insurance rate.

The school system was able to make some cuts to the utilities budget while still retaining some padding in those line items to make sure funding is sufficient should rates go up or inclement weather strike. Cuts were made to some other areas to help balance the budget. Overall, the school system made $202,863 in cuts to portions of the budget to help cover the increased expenses.

Carter County Finance Director Christa Byrd is also asking the county to recognize revenues already allocated to the school system which would allow the system to budget those funds. Currently, the school system receives funds from the Trustee’s collections, Clerk & Master’s fees, local option sales taxes, and state revenue from TPA. Byrd is asking the county to recognize $617,000 of the funds received from those sources as revenue so it can be budgeted for the school system.

“Those are local revenues that you are already receiving,” Byrd said. “They are not recognized and budgeted, so it’s been rolling straight into your fund balance.”

“We’re not asking for this above and beyond what you’ve been getting,” she continued. “This is just asking to recognize it and be able to budget it.”

Byrd said the $617,000 figure is a low estimate of those funds received and would still leave some money rolling into the school system’s fund balance.

The school system will present its proposed budget for the upcoming fiscal year to the county’s Budget Committee on Monday evening at 6 p.m. in the Carter County Courthouse during a budget hearing.