The details on the Schools Budget

The School Board met the County Commission halfway and cut about $6 million from its initial request. Now, they're asking the Commission to fully-fund a budget that is nearly $6 million over what the Commission has previously said it wants to spend.

Here are some details from Schools Director Del Phillips on what the proposed budget includes:

Last night the County Budget Committee voted to send the General Purpose Budget adopted by the School Board on August 6 back for further review. The Board requested $5.7 million in additional funding from the County Commission, bringing our total General Purpose Budget request to $194.5 million.

The requested budget included $6.2 million in required spending increases which included:
. A step raise for teachers..
A 1.6% increase on BEP portion of teachers' salaries..
12 teaching positions..
A 7 % medical insurance increase (classified insurance)..
School Bus Purchases (school share)..
Funding to replace 12 year old Literature textbooks..
Funding to replace the 8 year old Family & Consumer Science textbooks..
Additional funding to help cover the increased cost of diesel fuel.

The requested budget also included $1.9 million in additional needs identified by the School Board, including:.
A 3% increase (step increase plus 1% to scale) for Classified Employees (who last received a raise in the2008-09 school year..
An additional increase for Certified Employees (in order to grant all school system employees a 3 percent raise to match what is included in the county budget for county employees.).
An increase in funding for instructional allocations intended to reduce or replace school fees.