Jefferson County School Systems Get $69 Million From JeffCo Commission

BIRMINGHAM, AL - The Jefferson County Commission made good on a promise to distribute $69 million of unspent money from a county education sales and use tax to the 12 school districts in the county. The money being distributed is based on the number of students in each school district, as will the $18 million each year for the next few decades that the county will draw from the annual $60 million in savings.

Beginning in 2018, Jefferson County schools, as a result of having about 30 percent of the students in the county, will get about $6.2 million of the $18 million.

After the approval of Amendment 14 by the voters of Jefferson County in November, the county was able to move forward with a plan to refinance about $600 million in school construction debt and divert much of the estimated $60 million in savings each year to non-educational projects.(For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Birmingham Patch morning newsletter.)

The total amounts for each system were:

• Jefferson County — $24.1 million
• Birmingham — $16 million
• Hoover — $9.1 million
• Vestavia Hills — $4.7 million
• Trussville — $3 million
• Mountain Brook — $2.9 million
• Homewood — $2.8 million
• Bessemer — $2.5 million
• Leeds — $1.3 million
• Fairfield — $1.2 million
• Tarrant — $775,000
• Midfield — $739,000

Photo from Getty Images