Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Autauga County Board of Education met for the monthly school board meeting Tuesday night at 131 Washington St. in Prattville.
The board celebrated their one year anniversary of taking office and selected a new chairman and vice chairman for the coming year. Billy Hollen of district four will serve as the new chairmen and Tracye Strichik as vice chairmen.
“The public has not seen the many hours we invest in praying, the early mornings, the late nights, the conferences and the countless hours we spend with our community,” Former chairman Kim Crockett of district two said. “I’ve had the pleasure to see it first hand and to witness your passion. I am very honored and we’ve come a long way from last year,” Crockett said.
Newly elected chairman Hollen praised former chairman Crockett for “grabbing the bull by the horns” in her leadership role on the board this past year.
The meeting started off the meeting with a prayer, the pledge of allegiance and the approval of the previous meeting’s board minutes.
Three policy adjustments were made due to verbiage in complying with the Alabama Association of School Boards, AASB, in regard to policy 4.34 sick leave which will add language for employees who have children that are adopted. Policy 5.46, the charged meal program, and policy 5.54 which pertains to mental health services in compliance with AASB.
Chief School Financial Officer Lesley Poe was also in attendance and gave a brief overview of the unaudited fiscal year for 2023 in which the district revenue exceeded expenses by $11 million.
However, the excess of this had many factors and Poe stated that the system was able to reallocate purchases from The General fund to the Esser funds. The district also received additional funds to be spent in 2024 which did inflate the revenue. Poe also stated that the current audit is going on, and if there are any adjustments she will communicate with the board accordingly.
All other items on the consent agenda were approved by the board. The school board meeting is available for viewing on the Autauga County Schools YouTube page which can be found here:
