Shelby County Commission to consider district’s budget and capital requests

The Shelby County Commission will consider its school district’s 2014-15 budget and capital budget request beginning next week.

The Memphis Daily News reported on Thursday that SCS’s  capital request will total $51 million. It includes $12 million to pay for the new construction of a school for Westhaven, Fairley and Raineshaven elementary schools and adding 20 classrooms to four elementary schools.

SCS Superintendent Dorsey Hopson II would prefer capital needs be approved in the current fiscal year to avoid having to split the funding with the six suburban school system, according to the Daily News. With seven districts, funds will have to be divided among the districts according to the average daily attendance of students.

The commission won’t have to split the funds among the seven total school districts in Shelby County until July 1, which is the start of the new fiscal year. SCS officials plan to present all budget requests during the commission’s May 7 meeting.  The commission could vote on SCS’s requests during its May 12 meeting.

Some of SCS capital requests include$12 million to pay for the new construction of a school for Westhaven, Fairley and Raineshaven elementary schools and adding 20 classrooms to four elementary schools.

In total, SCS has $51 million in capital requests and the county has $50 million in capital funding set aside for the district’s capital needs in the current fiscal year.

“I’m not sure how we are going to do that,” Kennedy told the Daily News. “We are going to submit a request that we think is appropriate for the current fiscal year. … We’ll get it into the system quickly. But it will not exceed the $50 million balance that’s left in the level for our debt service.”

Contact Tajuana Cheshier at tcheshier@chalkbeat.org and (901) 730-4013.

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