No more, no less.

The Barnwell 45 school board passed the district's fiscal year 2009-10 budget during its June 25 meeting showing expected expenditures at $16,877,707 with its total projected revenue at the same figure.

The expenditures include those covered by transferring money from the district's reserve fund to cover a shortfall from this past fiscal year. The shortfall was due to money cutbacks from the state education department because of the poor economic situation.

The district runs on a July 1 to June 30 fiscal calendar.

Next fiscal year's budget is based upon the S.C. Senate's version of the state educational budget that includes federal stimulus funds, according to district data.

However, the new budget isn't without a lot of belt-tightening and cutbacks that the district has undertaken.

The budget will include the following measures:

• Teachers and professional staff will have to take five furlough days during the year.

• District administrators will take 10 furlough days.

• There will be no attendance incentive pay for teachers.

• The district is enacting a reduction of overtime hours.

• The number of substitute teachers used will be reduced.

• The district will have only two school resource officers, which are county sheriff's deputies, instead of the four it previously had.
Most of the time these two SROs will be at the high school and middle school although they could be rotated around to the other schools if needed, said Shirley Kitchings, the district financial officer.

District employees will not get any salary raises this fiscal year except for those workers whose raises are mandated by state law, she said.

Students not eligible for Title I will see an increase in meal prices for lunch and breakfast, Kitchings said.

• For breakfast, the amount will go up 50 cents from 75 cents to $1.25.

• Student lunches at the high school will increase by $1.05 from $1.20 to $2.25.

• Middle school lunches will go from $1.10 to $2.25.

• At Barnwell Elementary School, lunch will increase from $1.10 to $2.

• At Barnwell Primary School, lunches will increase from $1 to $2.

The school board also passed a resolution to acquire a bond up to $1.4 million to be used for the repair of several school roofs.

A school board in South Carolina can on its authority obtain a bond as long as the bond amount does not exceed 8 percent of the assessed value of district property. Any amount beyond that would have to go before the district's voters as a balloted bond referendum. The bond money can only be used for capital improvements - like building repairs - in the district.

Board chairman Chad Perry questioned whether bids have gone out for the roof repair work and whether the repairs can be done before the new school year starts.

Darrious Baker, the director of support staff and employee services for the district, said the district is starting to put out requests for purchase (RFPs) orders now and that hopefully the work could be completed before students return.

Roy Sapough, the district superintendent, said he is concerned from a safety standpoint about water pooling on the rooftops and creating additional weight on the roofs.

"The bottom line is our roofs have reached their age and getting to the end of their lives," he said.

The roof at Barnwell Primary School would be the first priority in being repaired and Guinyard-Butler Middle School would be the second, Baker said.

Baker said he could only give rough estimates as to how much each roof would cost to fix. For GBMS, he estimated it would cost between $100,000 to $150,000 and for Barnwell Primary, it might be $250,000.

Passage of the bond resolution will not increase the school millage rate which is at 37 mills, Kitchings said.

The millage collected is used to retire the debt on two other bonds the district took out in the past, she said.

One bond was in the form of a bond referendum to build Barnwell Elementary School, Kitchings said.

"A lot of school districts keep their school millage rate consistent to keep a steady revenue without increasing taxes," she said.