The Washington County Commission in Jonesborough, Tenn., has passed a budget that avoids raising taxes; however, this decision results in a $4 million shortfall for the county’s school system, prompting concerns among education leaders about potential deep cuts.

The budget received unanimous approval at Wednesday evening’s commission meeting.

During the public commentary, Jerry Boyd, the superintendent of Washington County Schools, articulated the pressing needs of the school system, highlighting new financial obligations, including a mandated increase in teacher salaries.

“We anticipate around $2.3 million to $2.5 million of additional costs due to these required teacher salary increases,” Boyd expressed. “This adjustment will merely align our teacher salary scale with the state’s minimum, while neighboring districts have already advanced beyond us in this regard.”

Commissioners were reluctant to increase the tax rate after doing so last year.

Boyd said he is only interested in solutions that wouldn’t further burden taxpayers.

“The hope was additional funding and not necessarily to put that on the shoulders of the taxpayers,” Boyd said. “You know, one option would have been if they could have reinstated some of the local option sales tax that it took away from the school system two years ago.”

Boyd said reinstating some of the local sales tax option would not have covered the entire gap, but would have benefited the school system.

Mayor Joe Grandy said the county has always supported the school system.

“Way more than half of the Washington County budget goes to the school system,” Grandy said.

The mayor said he believes the budget will not negatively impact schools.

“If there ever is a negative impact to the schools and they need the support, Washington County is there to support it,” Grandy said. “And that’s why our fund balance policy is what it is, so that we have a cash reserve to manage disasters. We have a cash reserve to cover other unexpected things that happen in the county, including the schools.”

Superintendent Boyd explained that they will explore ways to reduce the deficit and aim to do so without significant impacts on the classroom.

“We’re obviously not going to get more funding,” Boyd said. “But when we reduce expenditures, you know, that does mean, looking at reducing services, programing, you know, as I said, in some cases it may even require us to look at personnel.”

Boyd told News Channel 11 that they will need to examine areas for cuts and attempt to find a solution with minimal classroom impacts.

The school board will hold a special-called meeting after their workshop on Thursday to try and find the best way forward. It will need to finalize the budget by the time it rolls over to the next fiscal year, which occurs on June 30.