At its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday evening, the Gardendale City Council unanimously approved Resolution 2023-123 and committed an additional $785,527 to Gardendale’s four local public schools.
Included in the approved resolution, the Council committed what has become annual funding to the local schools based on student counts and teacher units.
For the 2023-2024 school year, the Council approved $200k to local schools based on the current total student count of 2,872. Here is the breakdown:
Snow Rogers Elementary: 388 Students – $27,020
Gardendale Elementary: 684 students – $47,633
Bragg Middle: 757 students – $52,715
Gardendale High: 1043 students – $72,632
The Council also approved $47,250 in funding for the 2023-2024 school year based on teacher units. The breakdown:
Snow Rogers: 29 teacher units – $7,250
Gardendale Elementary: 51 teacher units – $12,750
Bragg Middle: 44 teacher units – $11,000
Gardendale High: 65 teacher units – $16,250
Gardendale Elementary asked Mayor Stan Hogeland and the Council to provide funding for a complete renovation of classroom furniture. The total approved funding is $263,155.
Bragg Middle requested $147,130 for a total update for the Band Program. This will include all new band materials, equipment and instruments.
There were various requests from Gardendale High School:
Cheerleaders: Travel support for out of state game: $3,200.
Cheerleaders: Industrial fan: $419.99.
Band: Travel support for out of state game: $6,453.
Football Coach Request: golf cart and trailer: $19,099.99.
Wrestling: Equipment: $66,242.
Art & Photography: $2,664.36.
Basketball: Team equipment & uniforms: $2,515.
Mayor Stan Hogeland told the Council and those in attendance at the meeting that all requests had “come from principals, teachers and students.” The Mayor also expressed that he has told those he has talked to that eventually the number of requests for funding will outweigh the remaining cash in the account, but that has not happened yet.
The funds come from the special Ad Valorem Tax Account that many locally refer to as the 5-mil Property Tax. The tax dollars can only be used for public school purposes and the city collects approximately 1 million per year through the tax.
