In the online discussions about the school sales tax referendum, people have been commenting on and questioning school revenues and spending, particularly on administrative and executive salaries.

Overall, the Cullman County School systems’ administrative costs were 2.8 percent of the overall budget, which is just below the “normal” range for school districts in Alabama, according to the Alabama Association of School Boards (AASB). According to the AASBA, percentages between 3 and 6 percent are considered normal, with the average in Alabama being 4 percent. Cullman City Schools’ administrative expenses were 5.4 percent.

According to the Alabama Department of Education’s report on the combined budget for the 2020 fiscal year, a total of $2.3 million was budgeted for principal salaries at the various county schools, and $696,665 for assistant principals. The Cullman County School system has 26 principals and eight assistant principals. The enrollment across the county’s 29 facilities is 9,355.

“The job of the school administrator has changed over the last 20 years, to say the least, so the responsibilities have gone up. But the state sets how we earn administrative positions, and they fund those positions,” said County School Superintendent Dr. Shane Barnette.

He says the sales tax will only be used for school safety, the career tech academy and updating schools and won’t be used for salaries. 

“It will all be earmarked for those three main things, the whole time we have the sales tax,” he said. 

None of the funds will be used for “Project X,” a sports complex proposed last year. That proposal, Barnette said, is “dead.”

The city school system, with an enrollment of 3,155, has five principals and six assistant principals. The combined salaries for the principals is $558,274 and $423,694 for the assistant principals.

Patterson noted that there are some positions that the state does not set the salaries for. 

“At the district level, we have four full-time coordinators and two part-time coordinators,” she said. “The state doesn’t provide a minimum salary for those positions like they do for teachers. We review our salaries for administrative positions routinely to ensure we are in alignment with other similar sized districts so we remain competitive in recruiting and retaining high quality leaders.”

The superintendent’s salaries — $151,488 annually for Barnette and $167,596 for Patterson — are in-keeping with most Alabama school superintendents, who by and large are paid more than $100,000 per year. According to the Alabama Department of Education, the Decatur City School superintendent receives $190,281 per year, Morgan County’s superintendent receives $145,600 per year and Walker County’s superintendent is paid $171,600 per year.

On the revenue side, the majority of both systems’ funding comes from the state.

Seventy-six percent of the county school system’s revenues are from the state, with 23 percent derived from local funds, primarily property and sales taxes. The system receives $6.19 million, or 32 percent of local revenue, in property tax and approximately $12.3 million, or 63 percent of local revenue, in sales tax.

Dependency on sales tax, which can rise and fall with the economy, can be an issue. Barnette said if the sales tax referendum is successful Tuesday, the school board will use two bonds to fund school improvements and a new career tech academy, but not all the sales tax funds would be pledged to paying back bonds.

“That is why we’re always working on other things, like the lake-front property,” he said. “If that were to happen [downturn in economy], and someday it will . . . We’re not going to tie all sales tax money into bonds for that main reason. But hopefully by that time we’ll have something worked out with the Section 16 land as well, that we’ll be able to use it.”

The county schools’ milage rate is set at 10 mils, the minimum required by the state to participate in state-shared funds. Barnette said the school system pays about $300,000 to collect the property tax. Two percent of property taxes collected for the schools in Cullman County go to the Arab City School system for Cullman students enrolled there.

The city school system receives about $16.9 million from the state and $11,353,800 from local funding sources. The city school system’s funding is a little more varied, with property taxes from both the city and county totaling $5.2 million, $4.9 million in sales tax, a $50,000 contribution from the city of Cullman and $500,000 in tuition fees from students who live outside the district.

Per student, the county school system receives $1,976.47 per students in local revenue, while the city school system receives $3,597.65 per student in local revenue.

Barnette said in addition to asking for more sales tax money, the county schools are also looking at ways of saving money, including cutting energy costs. If the tax passes, the county schools could build more energy-efficient schools and systems, he said.

“We have 20-year-old HVAC systems and boiler systems that are running on 70 percent efficiency,” said Barnette. “We can replace those with systems that are running on 92 percent efficiency and save us money.”

Changing to LED lighting would cut the electricity bill in half, he said. 

“There will be a lot of cost-savings measures made along with these new projects,” he said.