The Hall County Board of Education reviewed its proposed FY2027 budget during its Monday, June 22 meeting.

Hall County Schools Superintendent Will Schofield explained that the current proposed budget remains in the preliminary stages, as the district has not yet received the preliminary tax digest from the Hall County Tax Assessor’s Office. The proposed FY27 budget sits at over $382 million as of Monday.

Schofield also emphasized that local Homestead Exemption legislation that reset homestead property values back to 2023 values and capped the annual value at 3% has significantly impacted district revenues. He said the district saw a reduction of property tax collections of $11.1 million for FY2026.

“We're starting to feel the full effect of the local legislation that went into effect last year,” he told the board Monday. “When you see our year ending documents, and you see that we ended up in a deficit this year, and again, we won't know for sure until the end of June, that it's going to be between six and $10 million of a deficit this year, you're looking under the right stone, if you think about the local legislation that was passed last year.”

The current millage rate for FY2026 sits at 14.99 mills.

Schofield also explained that the school district will face financial pressures as a result of rising healthcare, retirement, transportation and operational costs: flat state funding due to enrollment declines; and state-mandated staffing and service requirements.

“Next year's budget, in spite of all of these costs, is only up a little over $4 million,” Schofield said. “What that tells you is there are $7 million of cuts in the budget that you're looking at, as compared to last year.”

According to Schofield, FY2025 data showed HCSD ranks in the lowest 25% of Georgia’s 181 districts in per-pupil spending. Additionally, FY 2025 funding ranked just above the 21st percentile statewide.

Schofield said these figures could limit the district’s opportunities for budget reductions outside of expenditures related to personnel.

“85% of that budget is people,” Schofield said. “When you talk about wanting to make cuts, what you're really saying is pay people less, pay your teachers less, pay your bus drivers less, pay your cafeteria workers less… I tend to believe, as a dad, way before as a superintendent, that the most valuable resource we have in teaching boys and girls is our people, and we want to have the best people we can possibly have. When we start lagging in salaries to our neighbors, I shudder to think what the effect is going to be, and the effect is going to be directly to boys and girls.”

School systems are required by law to adopt a budget by June 30 of each fiscal year. Since the district was unable to adopt a budget for FY27 by that deadline, the board passed a continuous spending resolution for the month of July. The spending resolution will allow the district to expend funds from all sources for the month of July 2026, not to exceed one-twelfth of the final amended budget for all funds for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2026.

While the proposed budget is still tentative until a tax digest is available, the system also provided a calendar to adopt a FY2027 budget.

Though the calendar is subject to change, public hearings are tentatively scheduled for the following dates:

• Aug. 10, 2026 at 6 p.m.
• Aug 24, 2026 at 11:30 a.m.
• Aug 24, 2026 at 6 p.m.

If these meeting dates remain unchanged, the board would vote to adopt the FY2027 budget on Aug. 24, 2026 at 6:30 p.m.