This is the first in a series of stories on the proposed 1-cent sales tax benefiting Cullman County Schools.

While the Cullman County School System has a list of projects that will be completed if next week’s sales tax referendum passes, no formal plan for the revenue is in place. 

Voters will decide on March 3 whether to pass the additional sales tax for the county, and if passed, the tax would bring in around $10 million that will be split between the Cullman City and County School Systems based on the number of students in each system. 

The split would see around 23 percent of the money going to the city and the remaining 77 percent going to the county — resulting in around $7.7 million per year for the Cullman County School System.

In an interview with The Times earlier this month, Cullman County School Superintendent Shane Barnette said all of the proceeds from the tax would go to three areas: improving safety on each school campus, upgrading or building new facilities on each campus and building a new Cullman Area Technology Academy.

He said the system has listed all of the projects that will be coming to each campus and has commissioned drawings that show how some of the new buildings may look, but the real plans for the revenue will not be solidified until after the tax’s possible passage.

“This is what we want to do,” Barnette said. “This is what would be possible to do if we had additional funds.”

He said in the event of the tax’s passage, the Cullman County School Board would go to work on a 10-year strategic plan that would prioritize all of the capital improvements that have been discussed and put a date with them so people will know when the projects at their schools will be built. 

He said the school board would get bonds to secure funding upfront and then use sales tax proceeds to pay them off. “We’ll get probably two fairly large bonds, one for the career tech facility, and we’ll combine several other projects in the other one,” he said.

Barnette said past superintendents and school boards have never had the funding for real long-term plans, but if the tax passes and the board begins to put together a strategic plan, future board members and superintendents will have a guide for the future. 

“I believe, with all my heart, if this were to pass, we could sit down and do a plan for the next 50 years,” he said. 

While a strategic plan is not yet in place for the possible revenue, transparency with the system’s use of the money is a priority, Barnette said.

He said all of the tax revenue would go into a separate fund that would only be used for the facility and safety upgrades, and the system will publish a report every month that shows where the money is being spent. 

“If anybody ever questions, ‘I want to know where my money’s going,’ they can pull that up online or come by the Central Office to get a paper copy and see exactly what’s been spent out of that fund,” he said.

The system is also using a website, keepcullmangreat.com, to encourage people to vote for the sales tax, and if the people do decide to pass it, that website will remain open and be updated to show every project that is being done on each school campus, Barnette said. 

“It’s going to say ‘Here’s your dollar being spent at your school,’” he said. “It’s going to show pictures of what’s being built and what’s being repaired.”