Hoover school board to hold first public hearing for 2018 budget Tuesday night

August 28, 2017 9:20 PM

Photo by Jon Anderson

The Hoover school board will hold its first public hearing on its proposed 2018 budget Tuesday night at 6 p.m.

The hearing will be in the boardroom at the Farr Administration Building at 2810 Metropolitan Way.

It will be the first time the 2018 budget is presented. The 2017 budget, approved in September of last year, included $170 million in expected expenditures, which was $1.9 million more than school leaders expected to receive in revenues at the time.

However, Tina Hancock, the chief financial officer for Hoover City Schools, said revenues are coming in stronger than expected for 2017, and she now expects to end 2017 in the black.

Hoover schools have received almost $3 million more in property taxes in 2017 than in 2016, Hancock said.

As of the end of June, overall school system revenues were up $5.1 million from the same time period the year before, Superintendent Kathy Murphy told the school board at its last meeting on Aug. 15. And expenditures were down by $167,000, Murphy said. “We’re proud of where we are,” she said.

But that improved financial status has come with significant pain, Murphy said.

Twenty-six jobs were eliminated in the 2017 budget, including 11 bus driver positions, thanks to route consolidation and better utilization of space on buses, school officials said.

Also, some salaries were lowered this year as vacancies were filled, and some employees’ contracts were shortened from 12 months to 10 months, or from 10 months to nine months, Murphy said. Travel expenses also were cut, she said.