The White County Board of Education took a step closer Tuesday night to a nearly balanced budget for the 2026-2027 school year that prioritizes personnel compensation.
Director of Schools Kurt Dronebarger said the proposed general purpose school fund budget includes a nominal expenditure increase of just 0.67 percent compared to the previous year. Dronebarger said the district worked to adjust various line items and make strategic cuts to ensure the budget remained stable.
“Pretty remarkable really that we didn’t see larger expenditures than that and we’ve tried to absorb some of the cost,” Dronebarger said. “We have rising cost of everything and certainly our our salaries are going up and we’re paying our our people much more as they deserve, but that comes with more benefits and more expensive everything.”
Finance Director Chad Marcum said the district expects to end the current fiscal year approximately $500,000 in the black. Marcum said that while the budget is technically presented as a deficit plan, historical trends show the district typically spends less than what is officially appropriated.
“I think we did a good job of that, even though we technically are adding several positions, you could see by the bottom line that the overall budget is not increasing very much at all,” Dronebarger said.
The board also voted to reallocate a $607,142 high-performing schools bonus received from the state. Under the approved plan, $202,381 will be distributed equally among all full-time faculty and staff, which will be some $300 per person, while the remainder will be split between individual schools and district transportation needs.
“In White County we kind of we live and die as a team, we win and lose as a team,” Dronebarger said. “And so we’ve always kind of held to that. So I replied if there was any bonus given out of this money it would be given to the entire staff, faculty and staff, not just teachers, because I I value every position and I think everybody plays an important part.”
Dronebarger said the district is also monitoring the potential loss of federal funding for before and after school programs.
Like many schools across the state and the nation, White County Schools is losing students to home school and private school as a result of school voucher programs. Under the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement school funding model, Dronebarger said the school loses $8,000 in funding per student that exits the school district
Dronebarger said that while the programs are funded through the current year, the district will have to reapply this fall and may face difficult decisions if federal support is reduced.
“We support any parent doing what they want, but the reality is is with less students is less money for public schools,” Dronebarger said. “That’s difficult because when you lose say five students, you still need a teacher in that classroom, you still have 15 students left.You lost a lot of money in at a minimum $40,000 there on those five students, but you didn’t lose the teacher. So that’s where we’re seeing that problem is we’re seeing our reduced revenues and increased expenditures.”
Additionally, one of the biggest changes in expenses, was a $355,000 decrease in total teacher salaries. Dronebarger said the school is will surpass a base pay of $50,000 for all of its teachers, while being more mindful of total faculty costs.
“We had had some attrition, we have some people retire and teachers move out of state, you know, their spouses get other jobs, things like that,” Dronebarger said. “When they retire, a new teacher doesn’t cost quite as much as a veteran teacher. Just those normal attrition rates will cause a reduction in that amount. So we’re certainly paying our teachers more but maybe paying a few less teachers.”
The board is scheduled to reconvene on Thursday to deliberate and officially vote on the 2026-2027 General Purpose School Fund and Central Cafeteria budgets.
