The New Bloomfield school district is looking to add a teacher and designate a current teacher to serve as an IT coordinator next school year. Superintendent David Tramel further discussed the district's budget for next year with the board of education at its regular meeting Thursday night.
He shared some preliminary budget information at last month's school board meeting. This month, Tramel said he had a better idea of what the district can prepare to budget for in the coming school year. Although state funding could change before the legislative session concludes in May, Tramel said it looks like state funding will stay the same.
"But, it's March, not May," Tramel said emphasizing that state education funding could change in the coming months.
Furthermore, he told the board that the district has increased its fund balance over the past few years, which has made budgeting for next school year more flexible than in the past.
"It (the increased fund balance) provides us with a good safety net," Tramel told the board.
Because of that safety net, Tramel said he feels more confident in building a decent amount of the district's budget now even though state funding could look different in a couple months. If the district plans for its budget to look a certain way and the state decides to decrease education funding, Tramel said the district has money to still make its budget happen.
Tramel discussed two possible additions to the preliminary budget for next year: a part-time technology coordinator - a position district administration have strongly advocated for - and an additional teacher in the high school.
The additional teacher would take on half of the current teacher's course load, allowing the current teacher time to serve in their new role. For that part-time technology coordinator role, the teacher would work with other teachers in the district on techniques for better integrating technology into their lessons.
To give the new teacher a full workload, they would also take on classes from another current teacher, freeing up time in that current teacher's schedule. Doing so, Tramel told the school board Thursday, would allow the high school to add more advanced course offerings for students.
Two New Bloomfield teachers visited South Callaway schools last month to observe how their teachers and instructional coaches integrate technology into math programs. This school year, South Callaway added instructional coaches to assist teachers with technology integration.
Klista Rader, founder of 21 Vision Education Consulting, has worked with South Callaway's instructional coaches on training and techniques. Rader previously told the Fulton Sun that technology-integration teachers or instructional coaches, while not a new concept, are a growing trend in education.
The school board will continue to discuss those potential budget additions as it continues to budget for next school year in the coming months.