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The Homewood Board of Education held its first budget hearing on the evening of Sept. 6 to discuss upcoming changes within the 2017 fiscal year.
As of Oct. 1, Homewood City Schools will see a total beginning balance of $6.8 million in its general fund account, with only $2.6 million remaining under special revenue and $240,300 remaining for capital projects.
Bill Cleveland, Superintendent of the Homewood City Schools, said was pleased with these numbers, mentioning that it means the school isn’t hoarding money and is giving back to the children.
In the upcoming fiscal year, the school board is projecting to have a total of $52.5 million in expenditures, $42.1 million of which will be from the general fund.
The budget is predicting that 58 percent of the general fund will come from local sources, such as city taxes. The next major predicted contributing factor will be the Alabama Foundation Program, which comes from the Education Trust Fund, funding 38 percent, and state and federal contributing a little over 3 percent total to the general fund.
With this proposed budget, the school board is predicting that well over half of the general fund — 78 percent, to be exact — will go toward personnel expenditures, and the other 22 percent will be for other operating costs. The school board has also proposed allotting $327,727 toward local funds for schools for operations such as athletics, band, technology and maintenance supplies throughout the district.
The special revenues fund, which is projected to spend nearly $7.3 million, will help fund Special Education Initiatives and Title I, II and III initiatives. These initiatives are proposed to include salaries for more personnel, instructional supplies, media, professional development for teachers and administrative costs.
Within the capital projects fund, the budget is proposing to use $216,725 of the existing balance for already scheduled or ongoing maintenance and replacements throughout the district.
Of these total expenditures, the school district is projecting to pay $13,110 per student in the upcoming fiscal year, for which the Homewood School District has already enrolled more students than anticipated. As of Aug. 30, there were 4,102 students within the system, exceeding their funded amount by 98 students.
Homewood City Schools has also added six new teaching positions, which were earned through state allocations, throughout the district, said Lynn Buch, Chief School Financial Officer. These teachers were placed based on need and classroom size in efforts to keep student to teacher ratios low.
At the end of the 2017 fiscal year, the projected ending balance after all expenditures is $12.7 million, an approximate $2.5 million increase from the previous year. This includes the state-mandated one-month operating cost of $3.5 million, which is set aside and acts as a safety net for the school district.
The expected increase in the balance will be due to minimizing local expenditures, a projected increase in ad valorem taxes and an increase of enrollment in the Homewood school system, among other things.
Cleveland noted that while the numbers are looking better than they did in the past, they have not fully recovered from the recession of 2008.
On Sept. 6, the Board of Education also:
- Approved changes to school district personnel.
- Approved an additional administrative non-certified salary schedule.
- Approved a maintenance work order program.
- Approved revisions to the Instructional Support Services Contract.
The Board of Education will meet again on Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.
