Weakley County HEED Committee Discusses Multiple Resolutions, Concerns Raised over School’s Ever-Increasing Budget

The Weakley County Health, Education and Economic Development Committee met Monday, September 9 to discuss multiple resolutions.

Eight resolutions pertained to the Weakley County School System. Director of Schools Jeff Cupples spoke on the resolutions.

The first resolution was to add funding for an additional teaching position at Martin Primary School. Cupples stated that MPS needed a kindergarten teacher with revenue coming out of TESA.

“With any additional student, we get more money from there because it's student-based money. So that is coming from TESA, but it covers a kindergarten teacher as a primary cause of growth,” Cupples stated.

Commissioner David Hawks spoke on the resolution stating that if one looked at the 2022/23 budget and then look at the actual in the 2023/24 budget, they went up 5,875,748 in one year. Now, with the new budget they’re going up another 1.8 million. Hawks stated that it was approximately a 7 million increase in two years and with next years plans to go up another approximate 1.5-1.8 million again.

“We’ve got more teachers in this county now than we’re getting $1 in the state from and here we’re creating another job. You’ve got to have teachers, but there’s going to come a time when we’re going to have to face some facts that we can’t just keep adding and adding and bumping this budget 6-7 million dollars every two or three years,” Hawks said.

Cupples informed Hawks that they were not bumping the budget, that the money was already in the budget.

Hawks stated he understood that, but that he was referring to the overall school budget ballooning. Hawks compared what the school was getting in their budget to the Highway and Sheriff Department and how they would love to have those amounts in their budgets and that those departments were suffering from staffing.

“The school board is going to have to look at this. You think the county has got a blank check and we can just spend. When you all look at next year’s budget, you need to be aware of these things,” Hawks stated.

The second resolution was to add funding for the Gleason School press box which Cupples states was an ongoing project. The quote and bid process is now ready and would cost between $125-$150,000. The school is able to use the press box currently.

The third resolution was the dental and vision incentive program for bus drivers which Cupples stated is one of the hardest positions. The cost of that is $7,650. They've got 19 bus drivers that will take that option and that would. cover that line so it's moving it into insurance out of the payroll line. The school budgeted $20,000 for the incentive project and Cupples said it should not go over that even with the three bus drivers they have currently in training.

The fourth resolution is for funding the local portion of the E-rate project to upgrade internet cabling and access points. This would be $150,000 moved from the fund balance which covers the 20% match to re-do the network in the County High Schools.

The fifth resolution was a carryover of funding from a PreK Grant. Cupples stated this was for a special education preschool grant totaling approximately $30,000 to cover teacher salaries.

The sixth resolution is carryover for the SPARC Grant. This will be used for equipment and supplies.

The seventh resolution covers funding from the AG TAG Grant which was awarded by the Department of Agriculture. This will be used for a barn to store hay.

The last resolution covers carryover from the Public Schools Security Grant in the amount of $142,655 to use for security upgrades to make campuses safer. This will go to equipment and materials and a big part will go to adding and updating cameras. This all-state grant money that will be spent this school year.

The board approved all resolutions.

The next resolution was for an archive grant from the TN State Archives for roller shelves and file folders to preserve court documents. This resolution was approved unanimously.

All resolutions passed Finance, Ways and Means and will move forward to the full County Commission on Monday, September 16 at 5 p.m. at the Weakley County Courthouse.