|
November 20, 2009 Jasper, Alabama
NEWS
Board hears year-end finance report
Margaret Scurlock, director of finance for the Walker County Board of Education, presented a fiscal year-end financial report to school board members at Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting.
The report, which summarized the school board’s finances from Sept. 30, 2008 through Sept. 30, 2009, touched on several topics.
“It is a tough time economically,” Scurlock told the board. “But we are still in control. We may not be able to control revenues, but we can control our spending.”
All school systems are required by law to keep in reserve enough money to pay for one month of operating expenses. The report showed Walker County Schools are $3.8 million short of the $5.8 million needed for that requirement.
“With the current situation, we are having to hang on and use what we’ve got to have school,” Scurlock said. “Once things turnaround, it will be an important factor to get that balance built back up.”
Scurlock’s report showed that proration had cut the school board’s state funding for 2009 by $5.3 million.
“We lost 9 percent last fall and then we took another 2 percent cut in July,” Scurlock said. “Those state funds are what we use to pay a majority of our salaries. Luckily, we had some flexibility funds this year that we could use to help cover those salaries.”
Sales tax for 2009 was up, according to the report. Scurlock said that was due to a one-time $808,889 payment the Walker County Commission sent to the school board for tax money they should have previously received. Actual sales tax revenues were reported down by more than $400,000.
In other action:
•Ms. Sartain’s second grade class from Townley School led the Pledge of Allegiance at the meeting.
•Katie Lauren Self, a senior at Curry High, was recognized by the board for being named one of 30 2009-2010 Buffalo Rock Star Seniors. Self was the only Walker County student with that distinction.
•Doris Moody, of SCHOOLinSITES, gave a presentation to the board on the services her company can offer regarding Web sites for schools and school systems. Two Walker County schools, Bankhead Middle School and Townley School, currently have sites through SCHOOLinSITES.
•District 3 board member Mike Raines was nominated and unanimously elected as the school board’s vice chairman for the next year.
•The board approved several personnel requests.
•A school trip for the Carbon Hill High School cheerleaders to travel to Nashville for the WCA Cheer Nationals on Dec. 27-28 was approved by the board.
•Rosemary Hataway, Head Start director for Walker County Schools, gave a report on the local Head Start program. The board also approved $4,800 for training and technical assistance for Head Start.
•The board approved a state recommendation to allow imbedded and substitute academic credit through career tech programs. Debra Ellis, principal at the Walker County Center of Technology, gave a short presentation on allowing those credits.
•The board accepted a low bid of $49,900 from Reed Construction for the Oakman Elementary School playground.
print
|
Copyright © 2009 Daily Mountain Eagle, a division of Cleveland Newspapers, Inc. All rights reserved.
The information contained herein is protected by the copyright laws of the United States. The copyright laws prohibit any copying, redistributing, retransmitting, broadcasting or repurposing of any copyright-protected material. |
|
EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY  PUBLISHER'S NOTICE: All real estate advertised in this newspaper is subject to the Federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 which makes it illegal to advertise "any preference, limitation or discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, or an intention to make any such preference, limitation or discrimination.&squot; This newspaper will not knowingly accept any advertising for real estate which is in violation of the law. Our readers are informed that all dwellings advertised in this newspaper are available on an equal opportunity basis. Equal Housing Opportunity, M/F.
|