TCS Requests 4% Funding Increase From City Of Tuscaloosa

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Tuscaloosa City Schools is requesting a 4% boost in funding from the City of Tuscaloosa for the coming fiscal year, as city and school officials work to hammer out their new budgets before October.

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TCS Chief School Financial Officer Jay Duke and Superintendent Mike Daria were on hand to present the request to the Tuscaloosa City Council's Finance Committee on Tuesday.

As Duke explained, TCS is requesting a 4% increase from its base allocation of $2.54 million during the last fiscal year, which follows the state passing a 4% employee pay raise during the 2022 legislative session.

"We saw a good increase in property tax this past year," Duke said of funding from the county level. "And talking with the tax assessor's office, we expect about a 1.3% increase again this year. And sales tax, of course, has been doing well ... More importantly, [the state] stretched the salary matrix to 35 years and made some great strides and adjustments in the state's teacher salary matrix, so that money will go towards covering that for our state-funded [teaching] units."

Duke went on to say that, in an ordinary year, TCS receives roughly 14% of its funding from federal sources, while approximately 47% comes from the state and 35% from the county's property tax and sales tax. The City of Tuscaloosa contributes around 3% of the total funding for the school system.

Here's a look at what TCS says it is spending more money than ever before on:

• Raising the number of social workers systemwide from two in 2010 to 13 at present.
• Raising the number of school nurses from seven in 2010 to 30 at present.
• Reading before third grade.
• International Baccalaurate Programme at Central High School and magnet school.
• Chromebook purchases.
• Transportation for the Tuscaloosa Career and Technology Academy.
• Funding arts and music at the elementary level.
• Transportation for The Alberta School of Performing Arts and Paul W. Bryant High School.
• Teacher salaries that are 3.5% above state matrix.
• Safety and security measures.
• Foreign languages at the high school level.
• Cover excess costs for pre-K.

"Transportation is one thing ... we have a lot of intraday routes here that probably a lot of systems do not," Duke said. "But we've got a beautiful [Tuscaloosa Career and Technology Academy], which is a state-of-the-art facility, offering a lot of programs."

What's more, federal aid dollars from the CARES Act have made a sizable impact on TCS funding following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in fiscal year 2021, funding from the CARES Act covered 3.3% of the school system's budget, with that number climbing to 10% in the current fiscal year. Additional allocations are scheduled for the coming two fiscal years until it is eventually phased out in FY2025.

At one point, District 4 Councilor Lee Busby posed a question relating to if those federal dollars are specifically earmarked for certain expenditures.

Duke responded by saying that funding under the second and third rounds of the CARES Act place an emphasis on addressing learning loss. This could include devices, technology, mental health assessments, connectivity and learning software platforms.

When asked if those federal funds could be used to hire additional personnel or possibly invest in new capital projects, Duke said TCS has hired some new teachers and deferred some salaries, which has helped its reserve balance. However, he said the focus has not been on any major building initiatives at present.

"We've elected to put our money in students," he said.

Duke then said there will be some other additions, however, that will likely place some pressure of the TCS budget this year, but also pointed to boosts in reserves after the school system opted to close and provide remote learning during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in lower costs for electricity, transportation and substitute teachers, among other expenses.

"We've been able to bank a little bit of reserve," he said, "because of the CARES funds, we've been able to defer salaries and do some other things. We also had some savings from when we were closed. Unfortunately, we had to close schools, but we had a lot of savings."

Tuscaloosa City Schools is set to make its proposed FY2023 budget public on Monday, Aug. 29.

No action was taken by the Tuscaloosa City Council's Finance Committee following the presentation on Tuesday.

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