West Carroll School Board Approves Budget

ATWOOD (August 8) — The West Carroll school board met on Thursday August 8 and approved the fiscal year 2024-’25 budget. The $11.6 million budget includes $1.5 million in improvements to the Primary and Elementary schools as well as new asphalt paving for all three schools in the district, some of which is already completed.

Board member Keith Murray was absent for the meeting, all other board members were present.

The new budget is based on the state certified tax rate at $1.2207 per $100 assessed value. The tax rate has been the same for the past four years and generates about 1.3 million dollars in property tax revenue for the school system.

The budget includes a 3% raise for teachers and a 2.5% raise for support staff for the school system. The state requires school systems to keep staff with certified teachers at a certain pay level depending upon individual attainment of educational degrees.

The budget for the school system consists of four main components, General Purpose, Debt Services, Central Cafeteria and Federal Funds. Director of Schools Preston Caldwell stressed that they would only be voting on three of those components. The fourth component, Federal Funds, is approved by the federal government and not under the board’s control.

General purpose funding has changed in the last few years, moving to the state-funding TISA, (Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement), which is the new system of funding through the state of Tennessee led by Governor Bill Lee’s funding reform. TISA bases school funding on student outcomes and allows for bonus funding for areas of excellence at a particular school. TISA replaces the former BEP, Basic Education Program, that formerly funded the school systems in Tennessee prior to 2022.

Central Cafeteria is a component of the budget that is currently in deficit spending, requiring the school to make up the difference from the cafeteria’s reserve fund balance account.

“I have spent a lot time in central cafeteria and a lot of time digging through and trying to figure out where we’re getting these red numbers from,” stated Director of Schools Preston Caldwell.

The main source of revenue for central cafeteria is USDA, which accounts for students who eat breakfast and lunch in the cafeteria each day.

“As we have come off of COVID, we have a decline in USDA claims which is declining our revenue in central cafeteria,” explained Caldwell during the meeting.

Mr. Caldwell decided to give the more accurate claim numbers, based on the previous school year, for USDA claims rather than inflating that revenue in hopes that they receive more funding.

“We are hoping that we catch where we are not getting the revenue,” Caldwell said.

Central cafeteria could potentially be in the red by $41,173 for the FY25 budget, which would be balanced by the fund balance account.” Caldwell explained to the board that he hopes to have this corrected in future budgets.

Mandy Drewry, the new manager of central cafeteria presented a plan to the board allowing central cafeteria to debt remaining balances left by teachers from their last paycheck if they leave the system mid-year or over the summer.

West Carroll employees are permitted to charge their account for breakfast and lunch items with the agreement that they will pay those balances before the end of the school year. When staff members leave mid-year, these balances go unpaid and the school system is occasionally left with uncollectable unpaid balances.

This plan was approved by the board with a 5-0 vote, after Board Member Betty Wallace questioning the need for a board vote on the policy.

Caldwell explained the new policy needs to be recorded in the minutes of the board meeting and a document for teachers to sign permitting faculty members to charge their account for lunch and breakfast purchases.

The board unanimously approved the budget and Chairman William Robinson complimented Mr. Caldwell on his work on this year’s budget.

Prior to the meeting, a reception was held to welcome new staff to the West Carroll School District. Special mention was made of Dr. Adam Douglas is the new principal of the Jr/Sr High School. Dr. Douglas previously served as vice-principal of the school. Douglas has given special focus to academic achievement at the school during his first few months and was praised by both Caldwell and the school board members for his efforts.

The board praised the idea of the reception and wanted to continue the tradition into future school years.