Elmore County Schools make case for funding through community visits

Everyone has seen inflation in recent years — and it’s no different at Elmore County Schools.

For instance, the cost of school buses has almost doubled in the last five years but state funding has remained the same. Overall, revenue has seen some gains in local funding. But due to cost increases and lower federal funding due to an improving poverty rate means there still isn’t enough money to do everything that is needed such as hiring more teachers or constructing new schools.

Elmore County Schools superintendent Richard Dennis and other central office administrators have visited the schools and will soon go to the communities with information about how the system receives and spends funds.

“We are calling it our roadshow,” Dennis said. “This answered a lot of questions that employees had about the school system.”

Dennis said on a per pupil basis Elmore County Schools spend less than most school systems in the state.

“We’re 136 out of 142 systems,” Dennis said. “That includes charter systems.”

Elmore County has voted in 9 mils of property tax for education but 10 mils is collected because of a law passed by the Alabama Legislature to receive funding from the Education Trust Fund. For fiscal year 2024, Elmore County was allocated $80,260,844 from the trust fund. But to receive it, the system had to put up the 10 mils of property tax totaling $11,266,860. The state forwarded nearly $69 million to the system.

For fiscal year 2025, Elmore County was allocated $83,524,101. County property taxes of $12,292,900 meant the state sent Elmore County $71.2 million, not even a 3% increase. From that came a 2% pay raise for all staff enacted by the legislature.

Dennis and Elmore County human resources director Suzanne Goodin said part of the problem in state funding lies in the multiplier used by the state to fund teaching units.

Currently in grades K-3, a teacher is funded by the state for every 14.25 students. In grades 4-6 a teacher is funded for every 20.43 students. In grades 7 and 8, a teacher is funded for every 19.7 students. In high school a teacher is funded for every 17.95 students. 

Dennis contends the divisor used in middle school needs to be lowered to allow for smaller class sizes.

“All I can imagine is the people making these decisions have not taught these children,” Dennis said. “That is your most volatile group of students that you're contending with in schools and you're going to put them in the biggest groups.”

Goodin is a former school principal and said the middle grades are the hardest to teach.

“(The state) gives us the least amount of teacher units to cover those teachers,” Goodin said.

Elmore County Schools do get Title I federal funding for all of the elementary and middle schools except for those in Redland. Those funds are distributed based on poverty rates determined by the federal government.

“Those funds are declining,” Dennis said. “It is because Elmore County is in the top three or four counties in the state with the lowest poverty rate.” 

The state currently funds 653.67 teachers. Title I funds 11 teachers in the county. 

Currently each school gets all the teacher units it is allocated by the state. The Title I teachers must be placed at the school it is allocated to.

The creation of Edge, Elmore County Schools online institute, has allowed teacher units earned there to be used elsewhere in the county. This year, there are an additional 13 teachers in Elmore County because of it.

Dennis said this is how music and theater teachers at middle schools are funded. 

Like so many others, Goodin would like to see more classroom teachers. But even the state funding doesn’t cover everything for the allocated units. 

“It is based on average salaries,” Goodin said. “We have some teachers who are well over the average.”

Dennis said he and others in the central office are looking at ways to expand The Edge to be able to squeak out a few more teachers.

The state does provide funding called Other Current Expenses. School systems utilize OCE  to take care of issues such as dealing with the average cost of a teacher. At The Edge, OCE provides enough money to cover for six of the 13 teacher units used elsewhere in the county.

“It is still not enough,” Goodin said. “We can never get enough teacher units.”

Dennis said he and other central office staff will be organizing community meetings in the various communities across Elmore County to present the same basic information to the public.

“We are working on the schedule now,” Dennis said. “I’m sure there will be questions and we will try to answer them as best we can.”