COVID-19 won't impact Hoover schools' local tax revenues for 2020, CFO says
The Hoover school district’s local tax revenues should not be impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak for fiscal 2020, the district’s chief financial officer said.
That’s because the school district has already received 99.73% percent of the $77.4 million expected in local tax revenues for the entire fiscal year, which stretches through Sept. 30, Chief Financial Officer Michele McCay told the Hoover school board Tuesday night.
Most local tax revenues are in hand by the end of February each year, and that money is used throughout the rest of the fiscal year, McCay said.
One of the exceptions is the second half of the $5 million in sales tax revenues the city of Hoover budgeted for Hoover schools this year. The Hoover school district has already received $2.5 million of that and has been assured that the other $2.5 million still will be sent by the city, McCay said.
State revenues, on the other hand, are not guaranteed for this fiscal year because the state sends its allocations to local school districts on a monthly basis. If the state takes a drastic hit in tax collections, there is always the chance the state education budget could be prorated, affecting schools throughout the state.
For now, the good news is that most local tax revenues for the school district are in hand, and they are up from the previous year, McKay told the school board.
For the five-month period ending in February, property tax revenues that go to Hoover schools were up from $68.6 million in 2019 to $74.4 million in 2020, while auto taxes were up from $2.5 million to $2.6 million, records show.
There has been a slight decrease in some of the tax revenues coming from Shelby County. Revenues from a 16-mill Shelby County property tax were down 3% ($170,278), while revenues from a 16-mill Shelby County auto tax were down 6% ($16,387), and revenues from a Shelby County sales tax were down 2% ($14,646), records show.
In other business Tuesday night, the Hoover school board:
- Amended its policy against corporal punishment to clarify that appropriate restraint of a student may be used for the well-being of that student or others.
- Amended its policy on school admission to clarify that when a student’s parents are separated, the legal residence of the student shall be the home of the custodial parent and custody shall be determined by a judge’s order or agency placement order. If custody of the child is joint or alternating, the physical residence of the child shall be the determining factor.
- Agreed to pay $1.5 million to Quality Architectural Metal and Roofing for a partial roof replacement at Hoover High School. Quality Architectural Metal and Roofing was the lowest of four bidders for the job, Murphy said.
- Approved a summer work schedule for school system employees who work during the summer to work 10 hours a day on Monday through Thursday, unless a different schedule is approved by the superintendent or another designee, such as a supervisor or director. That schedule will be in effect from June 1 to July 27.
- Moved regular school board meetings from the second Tuesday of each month to the second Monday of each month, beginning May 11 of this year and going through June 14 of 2021. School board member Kermit Kendrick requested that change due to a conflict with his work schedule. Murphy said she may ask the board to move its Oct. 12 meeting to Oct. 19 due to a conflict with the School Superintendents of Alabama fall conference, but the board took no action on that yet.
- Heard from Murphy that a federal judge approved an extension in the deadline for parents to apply for their child to be transferred to a different school other than the one to which they are zoned. That deadline was extended from April 15 to June 15.