The budget for fiscal year 2009-1010 was approved by the Tyler County Board of Education at their May 4 regular meeting.

This year’s budget is $14,044,135. There are several line item decreases, such as travel by $12,370, non-tech-related service repairs by $12,560, and gasoline by $1,500. Increases included vocational tuition by $5,000, non-personnel budget line items by $44,430, and allows for $1,000 increases in electric and natural gas prices.

“The total revenue is $14,044,135 for Fund 11,” explained Jeff Davis, financial manager and treasurer. “Fund 61 had an increase from the preliminary to the final. It was an increase in Step 7 revenue of $8,737, bringing the total revenue expenditures of Fund 61 to $2,559,697.”

One big decrease in funding came from the state, while the Middlebourne Public Library received a financial bump up.

“The change in the state funding formula was a negative $2,184 from the preliminary budget to the final,” said Davis. “The other difference was the public library funding of $6,000. As requested, a budget increase at Middlebourne Public Library will be at $7,000 next year. Sistersville Public Library will be at $12,300, totaling $19,300.”

The West Virginia University Extension Service is seeing no change in funding from last year, while the childhood nutrition program saw an increase.

“It was mentioned at the preliminary budget workshop, the contribution for childhood nutrition program increased from $222,560 to $285,830,” said Davis. “It is our recommendation to increase childhood payments as listed.”

One area where changes are being made is in regards to health services. Tyler County Schools is switching to the Wetzel-Tyler Health Department.

“Sistersville General Hospital has just determined that they financially can’t make it work,” said Superintendent Jeff Hoover. “They’ve asked not to be a part of it next year. The local health department has offered their services for a fee of $6,000.”

Tyler County Office of Emergency Management Director Tom Cooper was on hand to talk to the board about training teachers and students in the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program. CERT educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards and trains them in basic disaster response skills.

“What we do is we take volunteers and teach them to be prepared,” said Cooper. “We teach them how they can help and how they can help the first responders. We do it in five nights of training that usually take two hours.”

“I have an opportunity for a grant of $25,000 through the Citizen Corps of West Virginia,” said Cooper. “In order to get the $25,000 grant, one of things we have to do to qualify is do this CERT program in the school system. Our instructors have already taught around 15 of your staff and a few of your students who have already been through this.”

The board discussed the condition of the roads surrounding Arthur I. Boreman Elementary School. The board and the West Virginia Division of Highways have debated back and forth who owns the roads and who is responsible for maintenance. In a recent e-mail exchange the school received both good and bad news.

“One thing I am happy about is (in) the very final sentence they say they do own the roads around AIB,” said Hoover. “That is the first time I’ve heard the state actually state that ‘yes, that’s our road and our responsibility.’ The rest is self-explanatory; they say they don’t have the money to patch anything up unless it’s an emergency. “

Board President Hoover also took a moment to acknowledge this week as American Education Week.

“Annually, we celebrate across the nation the hard working people who have dedicated their lives to helping children grow into successful and productive adults,” said Hoover. “This week is set aside for this recognition.