CULLMAN, Ala. – The Cullman City School Board called a meeting Thursday morning to discuss the Annual Budget Hearing of Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. This presentation was given by Chief School Financial Officer/ Chief Operating Officer James Brumley.
The full FY 2022 Budget Hearing Document is available below.
Source breakdown of funding for Cullman City Schools FY 2022:
State Funds – $18 million – 47%
Federal Funds – $4.7 million – 12%
Local Funds – $15 million – 39%
Other – $296,000 – .75%
With an increase of students by 8.45%, there was an increase of 0.3% funding for an additional teaching unit. The Fiscal Year is based on the 20-day period after Labor Day and is applied to the following year.
School nurses also gained $30,000 from the State. City sales tax is predicted to bring in $4.5 million, county sales tax $1.6 million, and the ad valorem taxes, an estimated $17.5 million.
Cullman Middle School (CMS) will be allotted $200,000 for renovation to the lunchroom, alongside all coming projects for CMS. The C-Building roof at Cullman High School will also be receiving a renewed polyurethane sealant, estimated to last for 15 years.
Additional Action Items were the extension of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which will be retroactively effective August 5, 2021, and is set to expire September 30, 2021. Per FFCRA requirements, leave will be covered for full-time employees at their daily rate of pay for a maximum of 10 days not to exceed $511.00 per day.
Cullman City Superintendent Kyle Kallhoff began the closed the meeting by saying, “I want to thank our parents for their flexibility as we work through adjusting our COVID-19 protocols this year, especially at the middle school and East. There have been drastic changes with the masks, which expire on Friday, and by the way, there is data to show that it has been effective at these two schools.”
Covid numbers will now be reported on Tuesdays to the Alabama Department of Public Health Dashboard, and will be published on Fridays
Superintendent Kallhoff also spoke on the recent bomb threats that have been called into several local schools. He shared, “As we all know, we have had a series of bomb threats via telephone to our campuses. And I want to reassure our parents and our supporters that our schools are safe. We have outstanding School Resource Officers and administrators at each school who are consistently patrolling our campuses both inside and out. – We keep our exterior doors locked throughout the school day, and our SRO’s also keep an eye on the parking lots throughout the day. We do not allow visitors on campus unless we have a confirmed reason why they should be on that campus. And that includes me! I have to ring the bell and wait for them to open the door when I get there, which is how it should be. Our police department is currently on close patrol notice for all five of our campuses. Our administrators and staff are trained on how to respond to a threat and orderly and safely evacuate our students from each campus. – When threats are called in, the police department is immediately notified, responds and does a thorough search of our buildings before we allow our students back on campus.”
Kallhoff continued, “I want to say that the person or persons calling in these threats will be caught, and when they are, this Board will work with the Police Department and the District Attorney’s Office to pursue the maximum consequence allowed by law for making terrorist threats to school.”
He ended the meeting by saying, “On behalf of this board, I want to take a moment and publicly offer our condolences to the family of Bruce Bentley. Mr. Bentley lost his life last week in a car accident. Since 2018, he has worked as a professional on our special needs school bus, and according to those who worked closely with him every day, you could not ask for a better employee, and he was equally a good husband and father. So, our prayers are with his wife, his family and his friends.”
City-Schools-Budget-2022To download the full PDF file, click here.
