By MACKENZEE SIMMS | Staff Writer

COLUMBIANA – The Shelby County Schools Board of Education approved a $362 million budget for the 2025 fiscal year at a recent BOE meeting on Thursday, Sept. 5.

In this budget, the BOE projects for $362,438,128. 26 in expenditures and $328,266,008 in revenue.

According to the board’s assistant superintendent of finance, John Gwin, one of the major differentiating factors that separates the 2025 budget from others is the amount of money the SCSBOE received from the state.

“The main big differences we received are that we got a lot of supplemental state money to help pay for things,” Gwin said.

One way that the SCSBOE utilizes state funds is through school nurse salaries.

“In the past, we have had to dedicate lots of local funds to pay for all of our school nurses,” Gwin said.

Gwin explained that a few years ago, almost half of the school nurses in the county had salaries that were paid for out of local fund. Now, Gwin estimates that the BOE uses local funds to compensate two or three nurses for the entire school system.

“Now, almost every single nurse is paid with state funds, and that’s something that’s really nice to have,” Gwin said. “(It’s nice) that the state is seeing the value in having nurses at every single school, and they’re funding that and investing in that.”

In addition, Gwin shared that the BOE received lots of funds during the 2024 fiscal year that will carry over into the 2025 fiscal year such as advancement in technology grants.

“We’re going to spend about a million dollars towards purchasing new buses with advancement and technology funds,” Gwin said. “In our budget, we are planning on continuing to update classroom computers.”

In addition to offering continued maintenance to schools, the Shelby County Schools Board of Education plans to continue several capital projects from the previous fiscal year, as well as start new projects.

The SCSBOE is currently planning to continue/pursue the following capital projects:

• Chelsea High School athletics projects such as redoing bleachers and locker rooms, as well as repaving in the parking lot
• Finishing payments for paving at Helena Intermediate School
• Chelsea Park Elementary classroom addition
• Calera Middle School classroom addition
• New entrance at Chelsea High School
• New classrooms at Helena High School
• New ADA-accessible main entrance at Wilsonville Elementary
• Renovating the Career and Technical Center entrance
• Interior renovations at Shelby County High School
• Classroom addition to Montevallo High School
• Interior renovations at Oak Mountain High School and Oak Mountain Middle to support the fine arts
• Classroom additions at Vincent Middle High

 

Those interested in more information about the Shelby County Schools Board of Education can visit Shelbyed.k12.al.us.