The Starkville School District awaits the latest budget numbers after the House and Senate reached an agreement today that fully funds education, and the bill is expected to be signed by Governor Haley Barbour this evening.

“While I am pleased that districts have been given a budget that appears to be fully funded, I am most disappointed that our public schools have increasingly been used as a bargaining chip in our state’s political process,” said Superintendent Judy Couey.

“From an administrative viewpoint, the budget standoff was frustrating, but even more frustrating was the personal side of this situation because you could see the true havoc this type of delay wreaks on the lives of families for whom a job or a contract means their survival,” Couey added.

The Starkville School District expects to receive spreadsheets with the final numbers detailing the breakdown of the budget and what it means for Starkville in the next few days. Modifications to the budget for the 2009-2010 school year will be made based on those numbers. A public hearing on the budget is scheduled for July 14 at 6 pm.

“The eleventh hour funding begins a new budget year that was preceded by the 2008-2009 budget year in which there was a five percent cut to k-12 education in the middle of the school year,” said Couey.

“The budget uncertainty does not allow districts to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars because it severely limits a school district administrator’s ability to plan beyond June 30. The business of educational funding should be finished in April of each year, and districts should be able to confidently plan for school starting in August,” added Couey.

 The budget agreement fully funds the Mississippi Adequate Education Formula and the add-on programs with the use of stimulus money, including funding for the National Board Certified Teacher supplement and the second phase of the pay raise for teachers with more than 25 years of experience. The bill also provides $3 million to continue the High School Redesign program in districts like Starkville that are already participating. It does not include $10 million to expand the redesign program to other districts, and it does not restore the $68 million in funding cuts that occurred in the middle of the 2008-2009 school year.

If necessary, the Starkville School District will continue to operate utilizing existing operational funds beginning July 1 until a state budget becomes law.

JUNE 29, 2009

JORDAN NOVET

Lacy Cattledge, 9, learned to make sushi this month. She also learned to make candy sushi, out of Fruit Roll-Ups and Twinkies.

“I prefer the candy,” she said. “It tastes good.”

Cattledge was one of 260 at-risk students in the Starkville School District who participated in this year’s month-long Summer Enrichment Camp, which took place at Armstrong Middle School here. It came to a close on Friday.

The camp is one element of the school district’s ASSETS program. The acronym stands for After-School & Summer Equals Total Success.

The Starkville School District has funded the camp by way of the four-year 21st Century Community Learning Grant it received from the Mississippi Department of Education in 2006. The camp is already looking for sources of funding for next year.

Camp Director Jim Gassaway said he wants to make sure it continues, so as to prevent students from dropping out and encourage them to graduate.

“Our community needs to buy into this program in order to keep it going,” he said.

Read complete article at Commercial Dispatch.