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It is budget season for the Chambers County School District. Chief Financial Officer, Cassandra Allen, addressed the school board on Wednesday night during the first public hearing for the 2024/25 CCSD budget. 

Allen prefaced her presentation by saying that these are preliminary numbers and that her office has not received all of the final allocations to give a full picture of how the money will be spent. She did break down how the budget is formed and the current numbers. 

“For 2025 there are a lot of fund sources that are missing that we don’t know what we’re receiving, but of course, we will be receiving,” Allen said.

The process starts at the state level. State legislators decide on the funding for the Alabama State Board of Education (ALSDE). Once the state board receives the funding, it decides how to allocate that money to all the state school districts. 

The board does this based on student count (ADM) and teacher count (FTE). Once the state makes the decision on how much funding will go to each district that school district makes a budget. 

CCSD and other districts also receive federal and local funding from a variety of sources. 

Local funds primarily come from the county and district’s ad valorem and sales taxes. Both the allocations from ad valorem and sales taxes are, with current numbers, projected to rise. However, due to other funding sources, the local funds will likely decrease by around $44,080. 

The largest chunk of funding comes from the state’s Foundation program. This budget item will be increasing by over $1 million, going from $22.13 million in 2024 to $23.093 in 2025. 

“The bulk of our money in the foundation program, probably 80 to 85% of it goes to salaries, if not more. And the remaining of those funds, of course, is spent on instructional materials and supplies and other things within our school district,” Allen explained. 

A new funded item this year will be two math coaches.

“We will be funded for two math coaches….$180,000 [is what] we are allocated for two math coaches at our school,” Allen said. 

The biggest change in the budget will be in regard to the federal funds. The ESSER (Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief) will expire this year. In a previous interview, Allen explained that while the school system will go without ESSER, they will not have to cut staff, as they have been planning for the end of the funding for multiple years. 

One of the ways they are going to offset those costs is with Title 1 funds. All Chambers County Schools are Title 1 schools, which are schools with high poverty rates. The district will receive $1.6 and $1.7 million of these funds for the 2024/25 school year. 

Once the district receives the funding from all local, state and federal sources, they will begin divvying up the pot among the county’s schools based on student and teacher populations. 

The next public hearing on the budget will be Sept. 11 at 4 p.m. CT at the Central Office 1298 Vocational Drive in LaFayette.