By Trent Moore

Staff Writer

Surrounded by decorations, desks and books, East Elementary School resource teacher Kim Bussey and instructional aide Kristi Patterson spent Thursday morning working feverishly to prepare their classroom for the start of the school year.

Despite state budget cuts announced over the past year, Bussey said she tries not to worry too much about the problems facing the state. Instead, she just focuses on doing her job.

“I’ve been here before, when they’ve declared proration in the past,” the 32-year teaching veteran said. “We’ve put in lots of hours getting ready for this year, and things are going wonderful.”

Bussey said spending her own money to buy supplies isn’t anything new, as almost all teachers do the same thing.

“You can’t beat the dollar stores,” she said with a laugh, holding up a yellow border purchased earlier in the day.

Beginning this year, all classroom supply money for teachers has been eliminated by the state. The cuts were made in an effort to allocate as much money as possible to save jobs.

In previous years, local school teachers received more than $500 for supplies and technology. Under the new budget, they will receive no state funding.

The tighter budget is the result of decreasing state revenue and a sluggish economy.

With the state allocations gone, the Cullman City School Board will give each teacher $100 from local funds to assist with supplies.

“We wanted to give them something, because it’s hard to make it through the year without any supply money,” city school finance director Russell Raney said. “The reason we have that local money to help is because of the half-cent sales tax we receive from the city.”

Cullman County Board of Education Superintendent Hank Allen said it was unlikely the county system would be able to find the local funds to supplant the state cuts.

“Locally, it’s not looking very favorable,” he said. “We’re just stretched so far. But, we’re still hopeful we’ll be able to figure something out.”

Projecting the overall 2009-2010 state allocations, the Cullman County Board of Education is set to receive $55 million in state funding this year, down from approximately $60.7 million last year. Cullman City Schools will also see a decrease, down from approximately $16.1 million to $15.5 million, according to recent estimates.

Due to the cuts, Cold Springs High School English teacher Cantrice Voce said she has had to spend even more of her own money to purchase supplies this year.

“I spend a lot of my own money but this year it is even more,” she said. “Whether it is for students who may not be able to afford materials or just things for creating a good learning environment.

Voce understands the tight financial situation the state is facing, but said she believes the education budget should be the last thing to go.

“The cuts are understandable but education is something you can't play around with,” she said. “If we are going to get ourselves out of this, we have to make sure our young people get the education they need. It's a shame education gets cut first.”

Vinemont Elementary School history teacher Keith Kugler said he has had to be inventive to find ways to save money for the new year.

“I’m re-using folders, that’s one big thing I’ll be doing,” he said. “Instead of giving individual class sets of tests, I’m going to have to have the kids write on their own paper, now. I don’t want to, but I’m going to have to do that.”

Kugler said some classroom extracurriculars will also be gone this year.

“We used to do some art projects, but this year that’s going to be cut,” he said. “We can’t afford to buy the supplies. ... We’re cutting everything we can, but a lot is going to suffer.”

Cold Springs Middle School reading teacher Lisa Campbell said spending her own money is a necessary sacrifice to give students their best chance for success.

“As teachers, we are used to spending our own money,” she said. “To be able to have the learning environment we want, we know we have to spend a lot.”



‰ Tiffany Green contributed to this story.



‰ Trent Moore can be reached by e-mail at trentm@cullmantimes.com, or by telephone at 734-2131, ext. 225.