Hoover School Board Passes Budget Free of Deficit Spending

HOOVER, AL - The Hoover Board of Educagtion passed its budget Tuesday, and for the first time in 13 years, that budget included zero planned deficit spending. The school board plans to spend $177.5 million in fiscal 2018, which starts Oct. 1, and take in $180.9 million in revenues, resulting in a $3.4 million positive balance.

According to the Hoover Sun, the boardhas been unable to end a year with expenses lower than revenues, but superintendent Kathy Murphy has made the budget her top priority. She told The Hoover Sun, “We’ve tried to be savvy with our taxpayers’ money."

The report also said the Hoover City Council increased the city’s contribution to Hoover schools from $2.5 million a year to $5 million a year, and Mayor Frank Brocato has proposed to maintain that level of contribution for fiscal 2018. (For more updates on this story and free news alerts for your neighborhood, sign up for your local Birmingham Patch morning newsletter.)

Financial administrator for the school system Tina Hancock said The 2018 budget includes money for six more teachers than the 2017 budget did, but funding for two child nutrition employees has been eliminated as the child nutrition program looks to cut staffing through attrition. The Hoover Sun report also stated that spending per student this coming year is expected to be $12,504, which is lower than the $13,715 per student in 2008 but higher than in 2014, when spending per student had fallen to less than $11,000.

School systems across the state have had an annual headache of trying to balance their budgets in the face of poor state funding. Alabama is the one of the only states in the country that funds its public schools primarily through sales tax and property tax, and is consistently ranked among the lowest in the country in education categories. Since Alabama has the lowest average property tax in the country, the state's schools do not get as much money from the state government and therefore have to rely on local property taxes to supplement the state money. Hoover has some of the highest property taxes in the state, which have been raised primarily to fund the city's schools.

Several other communities have done that as well, including Mountain Brook, Homewood and Vestavia Hills - all of which have some of the highest rated schools in the state, but also have some of the highest millage rates in the state.

(Photo of Hoover's Spain Park High School courtesy of Spain Park High School)