Dr. Brooks striving for financial efficiency amid challenging future

Published 7:00 am Friday, August 1, 2025

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following in the first of a three-part series presented by The Union-Recorder and based on a conversation with new Baldwin County School Superintendent Dr. Kristina Brooks. In part one, Dr. Brooks discusses the funding issues that lie ahead. Part 2 will be published in the Aug. 6 edition of The Union-Recorder.

One of the final tasks for Dr. Noris Price before her retirement as Baldwin County’s school superintendent was to oversee the creation and passing of the FY26 general operating budget. From local property taxes, state sources and a fund balance, the amount came out to $58.4 million.

In July, when Dr. Kristina Brooks moved into the superintendent’s office from Chattahoochee County, she alerted those at her first board of education meeting that more than $570,000 in grant money distributed by the state of Georgia was in jeopardy since those funds come from the U.S. Department of Education. Not having that funding would impact 38 positions in the district.

Brooks, however, shared some good news on that front as the 2025-26 school year was about a week away from its first day.

“We do know that the feds are withholding in the federal title budget three categories immediately,” she said. “When we dug into what that (money) goes to, it doesn’t completely cover, but it takes a portion of 38 either salaries or benefits. Those 38 positions range from paraprofessionals to some instructional coaches, behavior specialists, and even a few teachers, maybe an acceleration or early intervention. It’s a big hit.

“What I have shared since Day 1 is our goal is always to be efficient as we can with our resources. That takes on multiple sub-points. Sometimes efficiency doesn’t mean this money went to salaries, now these people are gone. Sometimes it means we redirect our funding because we look at more efficient operations. Things that are simple.”

Simple as turning out the lights at the end of the day. Does something need or not need to be printed with the availability of Google Classroom? Instead of a study guide being printed for 150 students, that study guide is put into Google Classroom as they have 1-to-1 Chromebooks. It would not require internet at home.

“We started on July 1 with our folks and said your goal is to look at your budget and see where 3% can be cut,” said Brooks. “If every department is making 3% cuts … some of that is simple things. I have a reading program and only first grade uses it. I have another reading program and kindergarten through third grade uses it. It does the exact same thing. We eliminate redundancy.

“It’s nice to have a lot of options, but when you are in a time when you have to be streamlining your budget, sometimes those options may become limited. How do we redirect some of those funds so it doesn’t touch our people? We cut back on things as opposed to our people.”

Brooks also wants to make sure they don’t “touch the classroom” when it comes to these decisions.

It should be noted that Baldwin’s nutrition department is funded through the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Brooks said due to where Baldwin ranks in the number of families receiving assistance, meals are 100% no cost for breakfast and lunch for every child.

“Because of that, we are able to get reimbursements from USDA. Our school foods are completely self-sufficient,” she said. “There budget not only covers personnel costs, it covers the meal costs, operations, so they are able to continually work self-sufficient of the school system.

“They also work on grants so they can enhance. With those grants we do Farm to Table. They will do something exciting this year. I call it a smoothie bar for high school students. We are legally allowed to do it, but it’s more age appropriate [for the high school].”

So a 16-year-old can have a protein smoothie with fruit. Brooks again credits nutrition director Susan Nelson with doing the necessary paperwork.

The Baldwin School District features pre-kindergarten programs at the Early Learning Center,  Head Start and Montessori, some of which rely on federal funds. Brooks said there’s been no announced significant changes to Head Start.

“Those salaries are set through the Head Start office,” she said. “Head Start is federal. Georgia pre-K is state funded … through the Office of Early Learning (DECAL). Those two entities, we are not expecting changes. Every year, even when it’s not a budget crunch year, we wait and plan so that we are always going to move forward as we need to. But we know a majority of that is through those departments.

“Our goal is to make sure we are supporting our early learning because the earlier we are able to teach children structure, consistency, routine, getting them in front of what I call academic language — how to go from front to back, left to right, all of those key early learning things — it helps with our language, which helps with our literacy.”

There also exists a partnership with Georgia College & State University, the Montessori Academy at the Early Learning Center, which provides a curriculum beginning at 6-weeks old.

“Georgia College is completely committed to the Montessori program,” she said. 

More information is at www.gcsu.edu/montessori/frequently-asked-questions.

The after-school programs provide another needed service to Baldwin’s families. Brooks said all K-5 has after-school through the 21st Century Learning Grant.

“We were concerned that was going to be one that was on halt,” she said, then came the good news of something she knew was on the federal ‘chopping block.’ “We just got word this week that the feds have released the 21st Century Grant, so all of our K-5 schools will continue to have after-school.

“What we are going to be very judicious in is not having a lot of overlap. We have this fantastic 21st Century Learning that’s grant-funded that’s available. We don’t want to take away from students who participate. We don’t want to cloud it. That’s another way we can be efficient.”

Everything, then will be after school.

“It still means our kids are going to get homework help,” said Brooks. “They are going to get literacy help. They are going to do fun things like STEM projects. They are going to engage in fine arts. Those will be pieces of it, but it will be all after school. That helps us narrow that focus.

“Going forward, (21st Century grant availability) is one thing we will have to be aware of as we plan, not this year, but the following year and the year after. What is our main mission and vision in the school system and what can we effectively budget and afford in the event the federal government took away funds?”

On the local funding side, the board of education will soon vote on an FY26 millage rate. As of July 25, Brooks said the finance department is still waiting for information from the Baldwin County Tax Assessors office. Since 2019, the board of education’s millage rate has gone down every year but one, and that one exception was an increase of 0.14 from 2022 to 2023. Last year’s rate was set at 12.40, down from 14.58.

“Our goal will be to continue to operate in what we earn,” said Brooks. “To operate without putting burden on taxpayers. A taxpayer, myself included, would say let’s just keep making it lower and lower. It has been lowered.”

She said the 12.40 is lower than most of Baldwin’s “counterparts.” And she found some close neighbors even lower than Baldwin.

“There is no benefit in us having residents who feel so pinched that they can’t be in support of our school system,” she said. “We want to be considered a valuable entity in this community, and our taxpayers feel they are seeing the services because we are graduating future police, future firefighters, business owners, future employees in this community who become taxpayers.”

In addition to the new superintendent, Baldwin County School District has a new financial director in Katrina London, who has a bachelor of business administration from GCSU. Brooks said she brings a background as a CPA working in Head Start programs and other government entities that makes her “well-prepared” for her new position.

“She’s well-versed in what it takes to stay within budget,” she said. “It is exciting to see her come to the table. She wants to make sure if she puts her name on something, that we are sound in our practices. It’s easy to think when there’s new people maybe the guard’s going to do down. We are going to stay focused on making sure we are efficient, we follow a stringent process. Before you purchase, there is a requisition, that it has been aligned with our strategic plan, and there is money in your fund.

“We can ensure as lean a budget as possible while still providing excellent resources for our children.”