During that meeting, according to reports at Tuesday’s council meeting, Talley said he had reduced the schools’ budget by $205,000, and he requested that the city grant the schools an additional $250,000 over what it previously had offered.

“That would enable him to not eliminate teachers and move forward with teacher contracts” for next year, Lawson said.

City council agreed to allocate that additional money, to come out of the fund balance, which would “put the fund balance between 97 and 98 percent of what it should be,” Lawson said during Tuesday’s council meeting.

Talley “understands that come September, if we don’t have the numbers, he’ll have to make some additional cuts,” Lawson said in the city council meeting.

In other words, clarified Knox during a telephone interview Wednesday, if next year’s city schools’ enrollment is lower than projected, the city would not give that additional $250,000 to the schools, and “Dr. Talley would have to do further reductions to his budget.”

Talley, on the other hand, said during a phone interview Wednesday, “there were no stipulations for that. They gave us $250,000.”