Thursday evening, CEO/Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks recommended the Gwinnett County Board of Education adopt the fiscal year 2022 budget.
The budget’s total expenditure amount is $2.4 billion, a 0.4 percent increase from the FY2021 budget.
Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) Chief Financial Officer Joe Heffron presented the final budget during the Board of Education (BOE) work session.
“We’ve held two work sessions with the board, one on March 27th to introduce the superintendent recommended budget then a second work session on April 15th in which the board was asked to tentatively adopt the budget,” Heffron said.
During the business meeting, the BOE unanimously approved the adoption of the budget without discussion. The budget increase is in anticipation of the enrollment in GCPS to grow by over 2,500 students. This would bring the total enrollment to nearly 180,000 students for the upcoming school year.
While the budget has grown the millage rate, which was tentatively adopted Thursday, will remain stagnant at 21.60 mills. The millage rate has allocated 19.70 mills for maintenance and operations and 1.90 for debt service. The final adoption will happen later this summer.
This is the final budget approval process that Wilbanks will lead as CEO/Superintendent of GCPS. His contract with the district ends this summer.
Wilbanks was presented with the Peach State Leadership Award by Marshall Boutwell, the President/CEO of Peach State Federal Credit Union.
“To coincide with this recognition Peach State Federal Credit Union CARES Foundation has pledged $60,000 that will be donated to the GCPS Foundation. Twelve thousand dollars a year for the next five years,” Boutwell said.
He also announced the creation of a new $5,000 a year scholarship in the name of Wilbanks’ late wife, Celeste Norton Wilbanks.
The next meeting will be held July 15, where the board is expected to adopt the final millage rate for the 2022 fiscal year.
