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City BOE passes second budget amendment
In its second budget amendment of the year, the Cullman City School Board laid out more than $300,000 in grants for various programs and technology upgrades for the upcoming school year.
The system received a $200,000 Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) grant, which will be used to purchase SMART Board equipment. The SMART Boards are multimedia whiteboards that can be connected to a computer to create interactive lesson plans.
Since the funds come from a grant, Cullman City Schools Finance Director Russell Raney said the money can only be used to buy SMART technology.
“That is the only thing we can use that money for,” he said. “We just had to budget it in.”
An $85,000 state department grant for ACCESS connected classroom technology was also included. The ACCESS program connects schools across the state through the use of cameras and computer monitors, which allows a larger variety of elective courses. The grant will cover the cost of equipment for the program, which is set to begin in the 2009-2010 school year at Cullman High School.
“Through this, we will be able to send and receive classes,” Raney said. “We’re setting up the old computer lab at the high school for that.”
The system also allocated a $50,000 grant from Sen. Zeb Little, which will help fund the system’s program for At-Risk students.
“That is helping to cover some of the salary costs for that program,” Raney said. “Senator Little has been a big help.”
Raney said the system plans to take approximately $700,000 from the system’s reserve to finish the year, due to a prorated state education budget that cut state funding.
The bottom line is that we’re still looking at spending into the fund balance,” he said. “We’ll be dipping about $700,000 into reserves, which is what we had originally planned.”
Thanks in part to the half-cent sales tax, the system maintains an approximate three month operating budget reserve — which is the state-recommend reserve level.
‰ Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 225.
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