Henry County School Board Budget Approved for the 2024–25 Year

Photo shows rows of seats in the Henry County Schools board room (Clayton Carte photo).
(Clayton Carte photo)

Henry County Schools has approved its budget for the 2024–25 year. The budget has $561.4 million in general fund expenses for the upcoming year.

The school board adopted the budget during the May 13 meeting. They had one speaker during the requisite two budget hearings.

FY 2024–25 School Budget

The school board budget anticipates $561.4 million dollars in expenses. This represents an increase of $46.7 million over the current year. The largest expense is personnel costs. $483.7 million, or 86% of the budget, goes towards salaries & benefits. The school district employs about 6,000 individuals.

To pay for the budget, the district anticipates they will receive $552.9 million in revenues. This includes the following sources:

  • State funding – $274.4 M, an increase of $10 M over 2024,
  • Local funding – $276.7 M, an increase of $25.1 M over 2024, and
  • Federal funding – $1.8 M, a decrease of $0.2 M.

Earlier projections had the district seeing a decrease in state funding. The final budget allotment by the state awarded the district $13.7 million more than the current year.

The district will use fund balance to cover the $8.5 million dollar difference between revenues and expenses.

Budget Items

Some notable items within the 2025 budget include the following:

  • A $2,500 salary increase for teachers & certified positions, originating by the state legislature,
    Editor’s note: because Henry County Schools employs more teachers than state funding allocates for, local revenues pay for the teachers’ salaries & benefits above the state’s allotment. A full in-depth look at positions paid for by local revenues will be coming soon.
  • A 2% pay raise for classified and administrative staff,
  • Investments beyond 2% to provide a $1 per hour pay raise for bus drivers, para pros, clinic aides, elementary and data entry clerks, school secretaries, district secretaries and maintenance personnel,
  • New teacher positions (17), para professionals (15) and a psychologist (1) in response to student enrollment growth,
  • New teacher positions (24) to increase opportunities in world languages, orchestra and computer science / engineering courses,
  • Classified staff positions (12) to support the opening of Birch Creek Elementary in August 2024, and elementary school monitors (29), and
  • A total of 98 new school-level personnel and 7.5 district-level staff.

To view the 2025 budget in its entirety, visit the school district website.

Featured image shows the Henry County Schools board room. Clayton Carte photo.

About Clayton 1745 Articles
Clayton Carte is the founder and owner of The Henry Reporter. He founded the site in 2017 to highlight transportation projects. Over time, he began covering other topics like new development so residents can best know what’s happening in our community.

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