Elementary Music Programs Will Return
By Jessamy Brown, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Jun. 28–SOUTHLAKE — The Carroll school district will restore full-time music programs to its elementary schools during the next academic year after cutting back on the programs in 2004.
“It is one of the most visible things and one of the things the community had asked us to restore,” said Julie Thannum, Carroll district spokeswoman.
Trustees on Monday agreed to spend $120,000 for 2 1/2 positions for the music program, and they rehired a former music teacher who had left the district.
In April 2004, trustees had to cut in half the art and music programs in the district’s elementary and intermediate schools. Carroll was facing a $6 million budget shortfall because of years of accounting errors, sloppy record-keeping and the state’s Robin Hood school funding system, which shifts money from property-wealthy districts to poorer ones. The board eliminated 98 jobs.
Officials have since implemented spending controls and worked to rebuild the district’s reserve fund. Carroll will have about $4 million more than needed this fiscal year to meet the school board’s requirement that the district have 45 days of operating funds in reserve, said Sharon Eaves, Carroll’s chief financial officer.
The full-time art program in elementary and intermediate schools and the full-time music program in intermediate schools were restored last school year. Carroll has used a combination of district funds and outside donations.
Last school year, Digging for Dragons, a Southlake foundation that raises money for Carroll, donated $100,000 to help pay for elementary school art positions. In early June, Digging for Dragons again donated $100,000 to support arts programs for the 2006-07 school year, organization President Dana Sternfeld said.
Trustees also agreed Monday to add two teaching positions in the district’s gifted and talented program, plus six secondary teachers, three high school counseling positions and other employees. Some of the jobs will be paid for with $650,000 in state funds. The gifted and talented positions were among those cut in 2004.
Digging for Dragons raised about $25,000 during its annual Celebrity Sports Jamboree, which drew about 4,000 people to Dragon Stadium in April. The group also raised $75,000 through a letter campaign to district supporters, Sternfeld said.
“They miss these programs,” Sternfeld said. “You can’t just give kids math and spelling and expect them to have a well-rounded education.”
ONLINE: www.southlakecarroll.edu
www.diggingfordragons.com
IN THE KNOW
Carroll school finance
Trustees have been adding money to the district’s savings account. Carroll now exceeds the district requirement to have 45 days of operating funds in reserve.
Fund balance fiscal 2004: $1.5 million
Fund balance fiscal 2005: $6.5 million
Fund balance fiscal 2006: $13 million
Board-required fund balance: $8.7 million
SOURCE: Carroll schools
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Jessamy Brown, 817-685-3876 jessamybrown@star-telegram.com
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Copyright (c) 2006, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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