The Brookhaven School District’s Board of Trustees settled on a near-$31 million budget during its annual budget proposal meeting Tuesday.

“There’s very little change in the total of our budget,” Director of Finance Cheryl Shelby said. “Our 2020 budget mirrors our 2019 budget. So there’s not a lot of drastic changes here.”

The number proposed for upcoming fiscal year was $30,893,979.29. The majority of the budget’s funds will come from the state. Funds will also come from local, federal and 16th section sources.

“There’s a little difference in ad valorem at this point, but I’d like to point out that ad valorem is based on your estimates of what you’re going to collect from October through September. Since we’re only in June, there’s a lot of estimating that’s going on. That number will change as we get collections,” said Shelby.

Shelby did not say whether the budget would cause an increase in taxes.

The budget has several expenditures, with salaries and fringe benefits being the majority.

“In total, our salaries and fringe did not increase that much,” Shelby said.

Out of the increase in funding, $360,000 is attributed to the state mandated teacher and teacher assistant pay raise. The school district is short of fully funding the pay raise by $105,000.

“The information we received from MDE says we’re going to receive $360,000, so we’re still about $105,000 short of the teacher pay raise,” Shelby said. “We are anticipating that we may receive additional funding in January, but nobody has given us any kind of number.”

“Every little bit really does impact our budget,” Shelby said.

The budget is expected to be adopted by the end of June, as the new fiscal year will begin in July.

The next scheduled board meeting is July 23 at 6 p.m.

Story by Gracie Byrne