The Atlanta school board approved a tentative budget with steep cuts for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
The board on Monday unanimously approved spending $843.21 million next year from its general fund, including using roughly $30 million in fund reserves to balance the budget.
The board is expected to finalize the budget on June 22.
The district's financial projections are still uncertain. While school officials are expecting significant state funding cuts, the state legislature has yet to pass a state budget.
The tentative Atlanta Public School budget anticipates the district will receive $813.5 million in revenue, with most of that coming from local property taxes and the state. That’s $52.6 million less in revenue than the district expects to receive for the current budget year, and it’s about $60 million less than what officials had planned for fiscal year 2021.
To close that budget gap, district officials plan to spend about $30 million from its fund reserves, leaving an estimated $82.8 million in those coffers on June 30, 2021.
Officials also plan to make just over $31 million in cuts. The district is planning to avoid employee layoffs and furloughs, but it will freeze employee pay.
It also will decrease funding to schools and the central office and postpone a major textbook purchase, among other cuts.
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