Published: May 30, 2009 09:55 pm      

Budget focuses on a growing school district

Preparing for the opening of Madison County’s new school, B. Michael Caudill Middle, played a large role in constructing the school district’s 2009-2010 budget that was released in draft form Thursday at a meeting of the Madison County School Board.

The district reserved $950,000 of capital outlay funds from the 2007-2008 school year to help fund the opening of the new middle school.

The 2009-2010 tentative budget also includes $500,000 for one-time expenditures to equip the middle school to begin its first school year. This funding will be used for teaching supplies, books, computers, software and other items.

The remaining $450,000 will be used to cover recurring expenses, according to the budget draft.

The draft also includes approximately $600,000 for additional staff and operating costs at B. Caudill Middle. The new staff will include an assistant principal, a librarian, secretaries, teacher aides and two custodians. The rest of the staff will be comprised of employees transferred from other schools in the district.

The 2009-2010 tentative budget — approximately $103 million — includes: General fund, $68,495,119; special revenue fund (which includes grants), $9,317,024.96; capital outlay, $970,000; FSP-K (Facility Support Program of Kentucky), $9,133,320; construction, $2,712,808.98; debt service (which includes “pass-through” funding for bond payments), $7,294,811.02; and food services, $4,711,216.

The receipts for this year’s draft budget include funding from property tax, motor vehicle tax, utility tax and income derived from collected interest.

The school district’s budget must be finalized by July 1, which is the beginning of the 2009-2010 fiscal year.

In other business:

• All Madison County Schools staff will receive a 1 percent pay increase, including those in classified positions. Teachers who move up in rank during the school year will receive a .5 percent pay increase on top of the 1 percent increase.

However, it was reported Thursday that Floyd would not be receiving a pay increase.

“Mr. Floyd said he was not interested in a pay increase because of the (financial) cutbacks and economic situation,” said school board member Becky Coyle. “He did not feel comfortable expecting an increase at this time.”

• Kirksville Elementary was the only Madison County school out of 18 Kentucky school districts selected nationwide to receive the SchoolMatch 18th annual “What Parents Want” award.

This year, 2,436 of the nation’s 15,571 public school districts were given the distinction.

To determine which districts made the cut, SchoolMatch compiled information gathered from county assessors, county auditors, state taxing authorities, state departments of education and others. The criteria includes: Solid academics, competitive test scores and appropriate levels of rigor; accreditation; national recognition for excellence; competitive teacher salaries; above-average instructional expenditures based on national percentiles; above-average expenditures for library/media services, based on national percentiles; and small class sizes.

“Madison County is certainly deserving of this honor,” said Elaine Farris, interim commissioner of education for the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet Department of Education. “Your district’s performance on state assessments, low dropout rates and recognition on the state, regional and national level make it a natural choice. Your district’s selection for this award put it in an elite group of school districts across the nation. I applaud your achievements and I’m certain that Madison County will continue to be a leader among Kentucky’s 174 school districts.”

The evaluation criteria for the award contained several factors which “... no one person could be responsible for,” Floyd said. “This is a very wonderful thing. I feel like we are a team, and I feel like we have the same thing as our goal, and that would be kids. Our slogan is ‘Every Student Counts,’ and every single day I’m in a (school) building, I see people making that not only their slogan, but a reality.”

Kirksville Elementary principal Ann Burns said she was very honored to receive the distinction, but that the requirements for the award is something she and her staff strive to do every day, no matter what.

“Our focus is the students, and it’s great to be recognized for doing what we’re supposed to be doing,” Burns said.

An analysis team visited the school in March and looked for a variety of things, Burns said.

“They looked at our cultures (among students), if we were doing any types of programs that could be replicated and if we used data as a support for the decisions that we made,” she said.

The SchoolMatch initiative was created to close the achievement gap between cultures in public school, which is something that Burns referred to as “...kind of like sweeping water uphill. It’s something you have to stay after all the time. We’ve implemented a lot of things over the five years that I’ve been principal.”

She acknowledged the support given by the school board and district-level administration.

“They have been instrumental in the success not only in our school, but they’ve put a lot of support, time and effort in each of the schools, and it makes a difference,” she said.

When it comes to the teachers at Kirksville who are in charge of educating its 482 students, Burns said: “I’d put my teachers up against anybody across the state. It’s a team effort from the very top all the way down.”

• The 2009-2010 budget draft includes $303,000 to place full-time nurses at Madison Central, Madison Southern, Clark Moores, Madison Middle, Foley Middle, Caudill Middle and Mayfield Elementary.

Part-time nurses will be placed at Daniel Boone Elementary, Glenn Marshall Elementary, Kingston Elementary, Kirksville Elementary, Shannon Johnson Elementary, Silver Creek Elementary, Waco Elementary and White Hall Elementary.

This is a contract between the Madison County Health Department and Madison County Schools, Coyle said.

The next meeting of the Madison County School Board will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 11 in lecture hall at Madison Central High School.



Ronica Shannon can be reached at rshannon@richmondregister.com or 624-6608.