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The initial 2023-24 school budget draft includes a 10 percent increase added to base salaries but does not request any additional money from the Franklin County government — a quite pleasing scenario for School Board Chair CleiJo Walker.

The School Board had a first look at the $54.077 million budget draft on April 18 and agreed it addresses concerns School System employees have aired.

Walker said what she’s seen thus far seems very positive.

“I am excited that we were able to give the raises,” she said. “We also restructured some of the classified scale so that no one starts out at less than $14 per hour. I think it is a good budget with a strong fund balance.”

Walker said the system was able to hire guidance counselors so that every school will have them. An additional maintenance employee will be hired for Huntland School, and the system will now have full-time maintenance and transportation supervisors, she added.

Walker said the system also added a classified shipping and receiving clerk to offer prompt delivery of orders to the schools, and another step was added to the certified pay rate.

Jenny Phillips, county deputy finance director, said the cutoff for step increases topped out at 21 years, and now teachers at the 22-year experience level will be getting additional compensation.

She explained that the 10 percent increases will be added to the base pay, so teachers receiving the step increases will have their annual salary increase average more than that.

Phillips said the School System has a solid fund balance — reserve funds left over from the previous budget cycle — at $10.3 million because sales tax revenue in recent years has been on an upswing.

She said added that the maintenance of effort, where the county can’t fund the system less than the previous year, has been increasing steadily because of the additional sales tax revenue. She added that, as a result, the property tax proceeds have been budgeted for the School System at $10.696 million, down from $11.090 million.

Sales tax revenue is set at $7.9 million, up from $7.5 million.

With the property and sales tax adjustments, plus slight increases in trustee’s collections, clerk and master collections and payments in lieu of taxes, the local maintenance of effort remains at $19.166 million.

The money the system has been receiving from the state of Tennessee is being increased from $28.03 million to $32.926 million — welcome news to the School Board which wasn’t sure if the system would be receiving less money from the state due to the new Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement funding formula for public schools.

Walker said she is optimistic the School Board will approve the system’s budget at its May 8 meeting and forward it to the County Commission which is expected to adopt the county’s $90-plus million overall budget by the end of June.