The Tennessee Department of Education Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund 3.0 (ESSER) money (which comes from federal emergency funds to combat the negative effects from the pandemic) may help Union County jump start its new middle school planning.
Dr. Jimmy Carter, director of schools, informed the board at its May meeting that he and the staff were investigating the possibility of using some $6.5M to match with the systems capital projects money of $5M to produce $11.5M toward the project.
The remainder of the cost would need to be assumed by the county through a bond issue or other revenue sources.
Carter explained that the school system would need to show that the building of a new middle school is more cost effective than the renovation or expansion of the current school. With the middle school landlocked by private property and public roads, he felt that this argument could be supported.
ESSER funds will also address learning loss due to the pandemic and leverage local funds in the FY22 budget. Carter said that grants and ESSER have expanded the local instructional funds to implement summer learning camps in the current budget and in-school targeted learning in reading and math next year, especially for K-3 students. Certified teachers will offer intervention strategies for students who are not reading at grade level in all of the elementary schools.
Next year's budget will also provide salary and benefit increases for all teachers and employees. UCEA President Carolyn Murr apologized for her misunderstanding of the changes in the salary scale for next year and thanked Carter and the Union County Board of Education for “making sure every teacher gets a $3000 raise from various sources.”
Carter reviewed every part of the budget set to be approved by Union County Commission in June. Nearly all increases are due to increases in salary and benefits.
The beginning salary for teachers will be $40,000 and will meet Governor Lee’s request for all school systems to have a beginning salary of at least that amount.
The budget also moves the attendance supervisor to the supervisor scale with a $9,000 increase in pay. Carter explained that the supervisor pay scale is no longer based on the teacher pay scale and is currently frozen to decrease the gap between the rate of increase for supervisor pay as compared to the rate of increase for teacher pay.
The total for the 141 General Purpose School Fund budget is $11.898M. The virtual school, TNVA, operates on a separate budget and is addressed under Fund 145. STRIDE pays an 8 percent oversight fee to Union County Public Schools. UCPS will use part of the fee to fund a distance learning supervisor.
The federal projects part of the budget known as Fund 142 saw a decrease in overall funding for FY22 but no decrease in services.
Federal programs provide half of the salary for the credit recovery teacher at UCHS, instructional facilitators at PES, MES, and LES, a parent involvement coordinator, K-2 ELA and math coordinator, another system math coordinator, and the teacher at SCES preschool as well as the system-wide Professional Development Coordinator. Special education added an interpreter as well as salary increases for teachers and assistants.
Marty Gibbs noted that the nutrition director who supervisors the federal lunch program and develops the budget for Fund 143 was not in line with other supervisors. Carter responded that he would discuss the fact with Ms. Effler.
Another sign of the return to normalcy was the board's approval of out-of-county school trips. FFA will be attending the state convention and several sports teams have participated in district, regional and state competitions.
The board took care of several other business items. It approved two contracts. Stellar Therapy will provide services for speech and language at Paulette Elementary School. Johnson Control will oversee the project development at Luttrell and some other projects that may occur in capital projects.
In addition, the board passed the following TSBA recommended Changes to Board Policy on second reading as follows: 1.700 (School District Goals); 5.100 (Personnel Goals); 3.201 (Safety); 4.201 (Basic Program); 6.411 (Student Wellness); 6.600 (Student Records); Deletion of 6.603 (Student Records/Use of Records); 1.901 (Charter School Applications); 4.400 (Instructional Resources and Materials); 6.303 (Interrogations and Searches); 6.402 (Physical Examinations and Immunizations); 6.405 (Medicines).
On June 11-12, board members will travel to Knoxville for its annual strategy planning meeting at the Hyatt Regency. The board also approved bus contracts for Greene, J. Monroe, C. Monroe for one more year. In the addendum, the board added a supplement for an assistant track coach. The supplement tops out at $1313. It also set the minimum fund balance for the FY22 budget at the state minimum.
The board also approved a scholarship program on the recommendation of Carter. The scholarship program would fund an $8,000 scholarship for Union County graduating seniors who wished to pursue a career in teaching, especially in hard-to-place subjects of math and foreign language. Two scholarships per year would be awarded.
The money would be sent to the colleges and would require an employment contract to teach in Union County. The details will be worked out this summer and two scholarships are to be offered to the Class of 2022, hopefully with a partnership of one or more surrounding colleges.
Mindy Grimm, Icare coordinator, shared the results of the student survey on substance abuse given to 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students. Alcohol was the most frequently used substance with vaping of nicotine being second.
The next meeting will be on Thursday, June 24, at Union County High School.