In keeping with the past several months, the Beaufort County Board of Education talked budgeting at Tuesday night’s meeting, but this time, it had to do with amendments to the 2016-17 budget still in effect.

Beaufort County Schools Finance Director Willie Mack Carawan presented four lists of amendments broken down into the state, local, federal and capital outlay budgets. A governing body must adopt budget amendments if spending and/or revenue varies from what was originally outlined.

Some of the more notable changes at the state level included reductions in funding for classroom teachers, programs for academically/intellectually gifted students and programs for students with limited English proficiency.

State funds for classroom teachers took a hit of more than $384,500, and at the local level, there was also a reduction of $73,617, according to Carawan’s report. Taking the largest cut in local funds was non-instructional support staff.

Dr. Don Phipps, BCS superintendent, said at a previous meeting that school officials try to avoid cutting personnel (especially instructional) as much as possible, although during the past six years, they’ve been forced to cut 100 positions — 32 of which were cut this school year.

“Putting a budget together from the school system perspective is a difficult task to do when you don’t know what your income is going to be from the state, from the federal government,” Phipps told county commissioners earlier this month.

Despite many funding reductions, there were also plenty of areas in which Beaufort County Schools received more money than originally planned.

The district was allotted $687,057 more than expected from the state in low wealth funding, as well as roughly half a million more for at-risk student services, $144,077 more from the federal government in low-income funds and $213,101 more in Title IV money for development as a “21^st Century Community,” Carawan’s report showed.

Local capital funds were also allotted to purchase new buses this year.

Looking at end totals, Beaufort County Schools received more money than was budgeted from the state and federal governments in 2016-17, while the local total remained the same. However, despite the appearance of a surplus, the district (and others across the state) continues to battle a shrinking purse at all funding levels.

Phipps said the key, as with most budgeting issues, is to offset any cuts as much as possible, while also appropriately allocating the funds at the district’s disposal.

“It’s a matter of working within the confines of what you have,” he said.

Beaufort County Schools is still working through the process of solidifying a budget for the 2017-18 fiscal year, which begins July 1.