News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Clay County Director Of Schools Diana Monroe said the system continues to gain students, seemingly every day as the new school year begins.
Monroe told the School Board Thursday night the system sits at roughly 1,030 students four days into the semester. School Board Chair Benji Bailey said the number will bear watching as the state’s TISA formula includes funding changes at the 1K mark.
“We’ll be in danger of losing some fund in there because currently we’re under a thousand based on numbers last year,” Monroe said. “So when we top that thousand mark, we’re at a point where we’ll lose some additional funding, so we’ll have to have several additional students to make that up. So that’ll be something that we’ll have to monitor, especially from a budgetary standpoint.”
Most school systems wait until Labor Day to really look at attendance, as students often leave the school system in the first few weeks. Any TISA change would impact next school year.
The board could not conduct its normal business Thursday night because it lacked a quorum. The only issue addressed by the board, the purchase of a new 78-passenger school bus.
Bailey said getting buses remains difficult and he did not want to wait another month to order the bus. The system ordered a bus last year and has not received it.
“I will say it is in the budget,” Bailey said. “We’ve got at least one in the budget, right? So this would be it. We’re just getting that process started. And again, the earlier we can get started, hopefully that increases our success rate of getting the bus.”
The board approved the purchase via executive order, with board ratification set for September.
