Stephens Co. School System Beginning Program Budget Review

A review of numerous programs is underway in the Stephens County school system as preparations are already underway to put together next year’s budget.

Tuesday, the Stephens County Board of Education began that budget review by looking at the Cannery.

Stephens County School Superintendent Bryan Dorsey said that the cannery has lost an average of $30,000 a year over the last five fiscal years.

According to the school system, it has made a profit in just one of the last five years.

Dorsey said that $30,000 deficit in the cannery budget each year is taking away from elsewhere in the budget.

“One of the questions as we get into developing the budget that we need answered is with this $30,000 (average deficit), is this something that we plan on adjusting this cost somewhere else and taking it out of other programs?” asked Dorsey. “Do we do some kind of cost increase for the use of the cannery? Do we reduce its operational footprint?”

He said currently, this cannery is the only year-round functional cannery operated by a school system in Georgia that he is aware of.

Dorsey said the goal is to make the cannery revenue-neutral and self-sufficient from a budgetary perspective to the school system.

School system staff members say they are looking at the cannery’s price structure and policies and trying to make it more consistent and see if there are things that can be done in those areas to help.

Board of Education Member David Fricks said the school system should not be making cuts in other programs to make up a deficit in the cannery’s budget.

“This money to make this up cannot come out of our general fund or other program,” said Fricks. “That’s my opinion. We cannot sustain these losses.”

Dorsey said staff can bring the school board a recommendation in December that can be implemented, if approved, in January, to try to provide some immediate budget help in this current fiscal year in advance of next year.

According to Dorsey, such a proposal could involve going to a two-day operational week, while using the staff person somewhere else on the day the cannery was not open.

“This is an educated guess at this time based off of the numbers,” said Dorsey.

Dorsey said the school system could then continue to tweak the plans as needed with the goal of making the cannery self-sufficient financially.

Board members agreed to look at a recommendation next month.

Meanwhile, Dorsey said the budget review of other programs will continue with the Board of Education next month and over the coming months in advance of the Fiscal Year 2016 budget process.

As for the current fiscal year’s budget, the school system reports that with 33.33 percent of the fiscal year complete, it has received 36 percent of budgeted revenues and spent 34 percent of budgeted expenditures.