Education cuts the state made last year have prompted the Greenwood School District to scrutinize teacher spending, and some School Board members are surprised by what they're seeing.
The obvious concern is over the teachers who have overspent their yearly $542 allotment of instructional supply money. But the number of teachers who haven't spent any of it is alarming too, School Board members said during their regular meeting Tuesday.
"Every teacher needs to spend something. I feel that's a true statement, whether it's $10 or $200," said John Aldridge.
School officials call this flat amount distributed to all teachers "Senate money" because a Senate bill appropriated it to the state's school districts after last year's cuts.
In the past, state instructional supply money was distributed on a sliding scale according to teacher seniority, but the decrease in state funding forced the district to go to a flat sum for all teachers, Superintendent Les Daniels said.
Many teachers are storing these funds away to increase their spending power for the next year, Linda Gray, director of vocational education, explained. This is especially true for Vo-Tech teachers, whose classrooms need mechanical equipment and heavy-duty tools instead of paper material and school supplies, she said.
"Some teachers roll the money over from one year to the next to buy a bigger ticket item," said Gray.
That practice is fine, said Aldridge, "so long as it doesn't neglect this year's kids."
School board member Brian Waldrop said the district should be buying classroom essentials.
"Why are teachers rolling over their money?" he asked. "Why isn't the school district buying them these items they need?"
Daniels said teachers have other sources besides the Senate money to pay for classroom supplies. Instructional supply money is allocated at the federal level and by the district, too.
Daniels, who called teachers "pack rats," said the administration has been familiar with this tendency for a while. "When they buy things, they buy enough to last a year or two," he said.
Since the district equalized teachers' pocketbooks, the usual complaints about inadequate funding have quieted down, he said. "This has quelled any 'I don't have.' We've had no complaints this year."
School Board member Barbara Gray still wants to see teachers spending the Senate money every year. With the training the district provides on diverse teaching methods and new programs, teachers should have plenty of ideas about where to put their money, she said.
"If we go out and try to promote more ways for teachers to do the job we ask them to do, then they need to use them," Barbara Gray said. "Don't just leave them sitting there."
"They can't use this money even to just decorate their rooms?" she continued. "If I come into a science room, I should know it's a science room without even speaking."
Also Tuesday, the School Board approved:
- A 6 percent pay raise for Daniels, pushing his salary up to $110,141. In 2000, the legislature committed to a five-year schedule of annual 6 percent raises for all education employees. In the latest session, lawmakers approved the third installment.
- The 2003 summer feeding program. The program, which feeds students for free during summer break, will go from May 27 until July 3 at the sites used last summer - Greenwood High and Bankston, Davis and Williams elementary schools.
- The 2003-2004 school year calendar, which adds a weeklong fall break Oct 13-17. The semester begins Aug. 6.
