Rhea County School Superintendent Jessie Messimer along with School Board Budget Chairman Perry Massengale and Board Member John Mincy appeared before the Rhea County Commission’s budget committee in a high noon Wednesday standoff over the schools' proposed budget.
The estimated $34 million budget, according to Supt. Messimer, is coming in $100,000 less than last year's budget.
He said the school system is carrying a $1.44 million surplus. He stated, "We are being very conservative with the budget right now. TISA (Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement) goes into effect next year.”
TISA is Governor Bill Lee’s new formula for how money is distributed to the public school systems in the state of Tennessee. It is supposed to be improving the way Tennessee funds public schools for the first time in more than 30 years. The formula would pump $9 billion in state and local funds toward education while simplifying the process for districts to understand just how much they receive. But Supt. Messimer said the board is not sure as of yet how it will affect Rhea County Schools.
Overall, the state and local governments will split the costs of the base and weights of the formula 70/30. But how much each specific local government will contribute to its public schools will be determined by an annual review of local funding capacity, according to information released by the state.
As County Commissioners looked over the school budget, Commissioner Bill Hollin raised the question of why the schools were giving their employees an eight percent raise versus the seven percent that the county was giving their employees.
Supt. Messimer said, “My job is to take care of my employees. We are hiring people in at rates they could go to Burger King and make more."
He said if the county gave their employees an eight percent raise it would not require any property tax increase.
“Using an average salary it would run around $15,000 to do this,” he said.
Supt. Messimer said, “We have a very good budget. Our board members and Amy Fox have worked hard on this.”
Rusty Rogers, chairman of the budget committee, replied. “No one on this board wants to take care of our employees any more than I do. I think for the last four years I have showed this.”
After discussion among themselves, Commissioners voted to meet again Friday at noon to consider recommendation of the budget to the full commission for approval.