| School board works on fiscal budget for 2008-09 | | Posted: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 8:35 am
| | Meeting on the first day of the 2008-2009 Fiscal Year this past Tuesday afternoon, the Weakley County School Board passed its budget and will now have it reviewed by the county commission next Monday. The budget is considered in thee parts — food service, federal and general. The federal budget consists of the Carl Perkins fund, Title and Special Education. It must additionally be approved at the state level. The board met last week to discuss the budget in detail and make finalizations before giving a final approval at the July monthly meeting. Director of Schools Richard Barber shared that the general budget will see a $1,000 decrease making the final figure on the last page $53,549 rather than $54,549. “We did get the bus bids in, but they won’t be awarded until after the county commission meets,” he said. “Roof bids won’t be released until later and will include Gleason, Martin Primary in the music room and play room, Martin Elementary and the science lab area in Sharon.” The total area to be roofed is 50,000 square feet and Barber hopes that work will begin on the project this fall. When asked about the recent decision to keep Carroll Academy open, Barber admitted that, as Weakley County is now excluded from usage of the facility, decisions needed to be made about what move to make next. “They’re going to proceed with it being open, but they are drastically cutting staff,” he admitted. “I’d like to see if any of the rest of the systems have figured out a way to extend the alternative school. The academy relies on some donations and it needs a permanent solution. We’re not going to get to a place where we can replace Carroll Academy. We were fortunate enough to be near them. We had that advantage, but it’s an alternative that apparently we don’t have anymore.” To wrap up talk on the general budget, Barber decided to break up the $53,549 and place $10,000 of it into vocational and specifically travel, $20,000 into electricity and $23,549 into building improvements. In other business, the board voted to extend the utilization of buses with 12 years of service. Three buses will be retired in August and those reaching 15 years of service are cut off. The next meeting of the Weakley County School Board will take place at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 7. | | | | |
