Joe GrahamHamilton County Schools officials took offense Thursday at a county commissioner’s claim that the school district was “hoarding” money in its fund balance, or savings.
Lookout Valley Commissioner Joe Graham was talking about efforts to put up-to-date school security cameras in all 76 public schools.
“We don’t have any intent of hoarding money,” Christie Jordan, the school district’s director of accounting and budgeting, told school board members at a budget work session.
The district’s roughly $34 million fund balance, about 8 percent of its $398 million budget, would cover only about four weeks’ expenses, she said.
By comparison, the county’s $112 million fund balance is 57 percent of its annual budget of about $198 million, Jordan said. That could keep the county operating for seven and a half months, Jordan said.
Schools Superintendent Rick Smith said the dictionary definition of hoarding is “hiding something.”
“This is a reasonable place to be … for a [school] system this size,” Smith said of the fund balance.