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The district's $27.7 million budget for fiscal year 2010 contains a spending increase of $200,000 over the fiscal year 2009 budget. Barrett said the coming year's budget is based on last year's figures, but the increase in expenditures accounts for step increases in pay for experienced teachers, an increase in retirement contribution and increases to minimum wage.
The original budget was crafted conservatively because school district officials had no way of knowing for sure if the Mississippi Adequate Education Program would be fully funded or not.
"Because of the federal stimulus money we received in Title One, we were able to add a technology facilitator that wasn't originally in the budget," she said. "The initial budget on MAEP and local dollars remained the same."
One program that will see some improvement thanks to federal stimulus dollars is the district's special education program, Barrett said, which received around $700,000 through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Two new buses for the program will be bought with the money, as well as technology for the classrooms.
Meanwhile, Mississippi School of the Arts Interim Director Carol Alderman appeared before the board to update members on enrollment for the fall term, saying the school, which will enroll 143 students this year, now has a population that is 70 percent female.
"If the guys across the state knew that, we'd probably have more male applicants," she said with a laugh.
Alderman said only 15 percent of the students enrolled at MSA come from north of a line from Vicksburg to Meridian. She said, however, that that is not unusual, as Mississippi School for Math and Science, located in Columbus, has always had more enrollees from the northern half of the state.
Meanwhile, Alderman also told the board that the graduating class of 2009 was offered $3.2 million dollars in scholarships.
"That exceeds the school's overall budget of just around $3.1 million," she said. "So nobody can say there's no return on the investment."
After an executive session dealing with a student matter and personnel issues, Barrett said the board came out and voted to change the sick day structure for district employees. In the past, every employee has had a designated number of sick days, and once they are gone, they have another 10 days during which they are docked a flat rate from their pay.
In the past that flat rate was about $44 per day, Barrett said. The board voted to bring it up to about $64 per day. After that grace period, employees are docked full pay for days missed.
"It shouldn't impact many people because very few people actually use up all their sick days," Barrett said. "And we based it on the fact that teacher pay raises have happened several times since the last time we changed the flat rate."
Barrett also told the board that the school administrators begin meetings and planning this week in preparation for next Thursday's school year beginning. New teacher orientation begins Friday, she said, and Mayor Les Bumgarner will speak at a faculty meeting at 8:30 a.m. Monday.
Otherwise, the board approved the transfer out of one student whose parent is an administrator in another school district, noting that they are held to uphold that by law. Sixty-eight students transferred into the Brookhaven School District for the 2009-10 school year, however, Barrett said.
