Hoover school board approves budget amendment

Published 10:39 am Wednesday, March 25, 2009

The Hoover school board approved a budget amendment during its March 9 meeting to lower the school system’s projected revenues by about $5 million.

Cathy Antee, chief financial officer for the Hoover school system, said the projected revenues dropped from $161 million to $156 million as a direct result of proration.

However, the amendment does not cut projected spending — rather, the projected spending increased by about $914,000, Antee said.

The increased expenses are related to funding for the school system’s National Board certified teachers, and should be offset by federal or state dollars, she said.

Antee said the reason budget expenses have not been cut is because the school system doesn’t yet know the impact of the federal stimulus package.

School system officials attended the Monday state education meeting in Montgomery but didn’t get any district-specific information.

“It’ll be a couple of weeks before we get that information,” Antee said. “We don’t know any more about the stimulus than the fact it’s out there. We don’t know what the dollar amount will be for our district.”

Hoover schools are actively trying to save money by limiting travel and cutting expenses in any way possible.

“We’re doing everything any other company or organization would do,” Antee said. “Fortunately, we didn’t have to go to more drastic measures during the school year.”