By Crystal McGough, Editor
TRUSSVILLE – The Trussville City Council approved its 2023-24 fiscal year budget as part of the consent agenda Monday night, Aug. 21, 2023.
The budget has an overall total of revenues set at $68,729,191.72, with overall total expenditures set at $66,933,678.42. The general fund shows $57,315,302.51 in total revenues and $54,713,916.53 in total expenditures.
“FY24 is very similar to FY23 in every respect,” Chief Financial Officer Jim Kirkland said. “I refer to this as a flat budget, which means there’s not significant changes to the current year from the previous year. The chart illustrates that, at this point, we are budgeting rolling over about $1.4 million at the end of fiscal year ‘24. The takeaway that I want to leave you with tonight is that we have approximately five months in our operating reserve. We’re required to have one month; they strongly suggest that we have three. But, as always, our goal is to be great stewards of taxpayer money; to provide our teachers and staff with the resources they need to be effective, all while staying conservative because, as the past has shown us, we can never predict what the next 12 months is going to hold for us.”
Dr. Patrick Martin publicly recognized three groups, including the HTMS staff for being name an A+ College Ready School of Distinction, the district’s elementary schools for achieving Cognia STEM Certification, and the Transportation Department for excellent scores on its recent inspection.
“Hewitt-Trussville Middle School has recently been named an A+ College Ready School of Distinction,” Martin said. “Essentially, what this means is that they have achieved two consecutive years of growth in the PSAT eighth grade/ninth grade exam. According to Tammy Dunham, A+ College Ready, the growth is a direct result of excellent instruction facilitated by teachers here at Hewitt-Trussville Middle School.”
Hewitt-Trussville Middle School eighth grade teacher Jada Burns added HTMS was one of only two schools at the A+ Conference to receive this distinction through a three-year grant.
Next, Martin recognized all three elementary schools for achieving Cognia STEM Certification.
“This journey began before Covid and we’ve been in it for quite a while,” said April Chamberlain, Technology Coordinator for Trussville City Schools. “For those that are new to the STEM Certification, it is an international program through Cognia, who certifies us as school districts.”
Last but not least, Martin recognized the transportation department for receiving a perfect score on its inspections.
“Each year, the State Department of Education sends out a team and they do inspections on our buses, they look at our transportation department, look at all of those items to assure that our transportation program is safe and secure,” Martin said. “I’m pleased to announce that, of the 29 buses inspected, no buses were found to have deficiencies, and again, our transportation department received 100%.”
Other notable items approved on the consent agenda included the Cognia STEM Certification for the elementary schools, five field trips, several facility-use requests, and two bid renewals – one for Cahaba Elementary lawn and grown maintenance and one for Paine Elementary cleaning services.
The Board heard from Assistant Superintendent of Student Support Services Dr. Rachel Poovey and HTHS Principal Aaron King concerning an agreement with K-12 Bloom, a streamlined software platform to assist with communication between staff, administrators and parents.
“I had an opportunity to use Bloom – in fact I was one of the first principals probably in the state to get a chance to use it,” King said. “I’ve used it effectively for about seven years. Bloom helps us with transparency. A teacher can put in information, and it goes directly to the administrator. That gives us a good window of what’s happening in the class in real time and allows us to be very responsive with our faculty.”
Poovey also recommended the use of Anonymous Alerts, an app that gives students, parents and the community an opportunity to share important information with the school administration and staff.
“Where we used to have a call-in tip line at one time, this is more engaging to our community,” she said. “It is anonymous. They can put their information in and let our district administrative staff know who is making that report, or they can leave it anonymous, but it gives us enough to track down and get ahead of situations.”
The Board approved both action items unanimously.
The Trussville Board of Education typically meets in regular session at 5 p.m. on the third Monday of each month. Board meetings are open to the public and livestreamed.