Initial budget estimates place Hamilton County Schools in a better financial position this year than the one before, district officials said.
“We feel very good with this budget,” the district’s chief financial officer, Mary Ellen Heuton, told board members Thursday. “I think it’s a very strong budget.”
The district projects that it will have around $16 million more in operating revenue for the 2026-27 school year, largely due to sales tax growth and extra state funding tied to changes in the minimum starting teacher salary. Hamilton County Schools raised its starting teacher pay to $50,000 — the minimum required by Tennessee law next school year — in 2024.
There’s likely to be some variation with that number, Heuton said, but the district feels good about the estimate and will use it to build the first version of the budget it presents to the board.