The Hamilton County School Board’s finance committee is working through budget scenarios for fiscal year 2026. Thursday night’s proposal puts the operating budget at $576,751,087.
Board members are grappling with lower-than-projected tax revenues, minimal staffing cuts and dread that the County Commission won’t give the funds they ask for.
A $12.5 million increase in health care costs and lower than expected sales and property tax revenues mean this budget must make up as much as $19 million.
“Our revenues are not meeting what was proposed in (the fiscal year 2025) budget, to the tune of $4.5 million to $6.5 million,” said Superintendent Dr. Justin Robertson.
But Dr. Robertson pledged to protect student-facing school staffing, student resources such as athletics and the arts, and employee compensation including health care.
The fiscal year 2025 budget estimated a 3 percent increase in revenues, but that wasn’t realized. The fiscal year 2026 budget estimates only a 2 percent increase over FY25’s actual revenues.
The current proposal would cut 16 part-time PRN positions, reduce transportation to magnet schools, rearrange exceptional education staffing to service hours rather than student head count, and reduce benchmark testing to twice a year. The district is also hoping for a $2 million state grant to fund school security officers.
Board member Felice Hadden leaned in to her idea to alter the base staffing model to remove mandates for student support coaches, costing $5.8 million, social workers ($4.9 million), counselors, ($10.3 million), career advisors, ($1.8 million), and nurses ($5 million). Individual schools should be able to hire these based on their unique student needs, not dictated by student enrollment, she said.
Other board members suggested “scrubbing” contracted services to shave off annual increases or ask those contractors for discounts in the form of donations.
The nursing cuts and transportation cuts caused the most distress at the meeting.
So far this year those PRNs have staffed 840 days off, said school health program manager Marisa Moyers. She said the district’s registered nurses can’t fill in for those days off themselves.
“These are things that keep me up at night when I can’t staff a school with a nurse,” Ms. Moyers said.
Dr. Robertson said the administration is still mapping out a plan that would use existing nurses and other trained staff without sacrificing nurses in schools with acuity requirements.
“We are not taking nurses out of schools,” he said. “To be clear, there will be a nurse in every school.”
Dr. Robertson suggested more efficient transportation to magnet schools, with more hubs and possibly with a partnership with the evolving Chattanooga Area Regional Transportation Authority. For example, shuttle students from the Chattanooga Zoo parking lot up the street to Chattanooga School for the Arts & Sciences.
"(CARTA President and CEO) Charles (Frazier) has been a very good partner," Dr. Robertson said.
Dr. Robertson also proposed a two percent cut in school-based staffing, absorbed by retirements, matriculation and drops in student enrollment, and a 7.5 percent cut in central office staffing.
But board member Jill Black said that no amount of sacrifice will be enough for the County Commission, who must approve funding for the schools budget.
“I know that they’re not going to fully fund it no matter what we take them, because there isn’t trust here,” Ms. Black said. She said she is not willing to infringe on student health and safety or on access to education, which she tied to the PRN positions and the magnet school transportation.
Board member Ben Connor would not join the cuts discussion, though pressed by Committee Chairman Ben Daugherty for practical solutions the County Commission would approve.
“If they say ‘no,’ that’s scary,” Mr. Connor said. “We can’t cut needed things.”
He and board member Karitsa Jones support asking the County Commission for more money.
Ms. Jones called on the County Commission again to “put a referendum up” to add a special tax or tax increase for education, but challenged that “the vote would cause them to look like they haven’t been telling the truth.”
“Hamilton County government is responsible for funding public education,” Ms. Jones said.
“I have never been more passionate about it than I am today,” she said. “That is the hill I’m going to stand on and scream on until next August 2026.”
Mr. Connor suggested a local option sales tax rate increase like one in Williamson County that municipalities within Hamilton County would vote to approve.
“I think they both could be doing more and should be doing more,” Dr. Robertson said, referring to Hamilton County and the 10 cities and towns within it.
“I don’t know if our arm is long enough to box with them right now,” said School Board Chairman Joe Smith, who favors taking many, smaller bites out of the budget.