Bremen City Schools Assistant Superintendent Janis Parrish noted instructional needs as a primary target for budget expenditures for the upcoming school year, while she serves as interim superintendent this month until Dr. Stanley McCain returns as part-time superintendent in August.

In the board meeting Monday, she announced the school system has about $14 million to pull from in the general budget, while a vast portion of the funds are designated for classroom equipment and teacher salaries. This will join the school board’s major investment they agreed to make for interactive whiteboards in many of the schools, in an effort to better engage students during the learning process.

She also reported the school system’s financial outlook is fair after the state’s last-minute pullback of funding for June, which concluded the 2008-09 fiscal year. In an attempt to adjust to low revenue estimates, the state’s shift imposed a retrace of funding the system needed for that period, but Parrish expressed relief to have a balanced budget they approved for this school year.

They discussed how the funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will support educational improvement. Title I funds will support academically-challenged students at Bremen Elementary and Bremen Middle Schools, and remedial reading programs will be implemented at all of the schools.

In other business, Parrish announced the initial results from the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) report regarding the school system’s academic performance.

“We met AYP in every area at every school, except for special needs sub-group at Bremen Middle School,” she added. “But we do have a plan of improvement in place so we can better serve the needs of these students.”

The school board also approved the use of funds from the athletic department budget to replace the antiquated field goal post at Bremen High School.

The school board approved several other items on the agenda, including their agreement renewal with the Georgia School Funding Association, which is an organization made up of school systems working to get adequate funding for school programs.

A fundraising request was granted for the Bremen Middle School Student Council, while the school nutrition program bids for this year were also accepted.

Regarding personnel, a Title I paraprofessional has been approved to support Jones Elementary School, as well as a revised 2009-10 bus driver list that school system officials updated.

The meeting closed with an approved pay increase for substitute teachers for the 2009-10 school year that is raised from $50 to $70 for certificate and degree recipients, along with an increase from $40 to $50 for non-certified substitutes.

“We haven’t had an increase in a long while, so we adjusted our numbers based on what surrounding systems [offer],” she said.

The next Bremen Board of Education meeting will be held Monday, Aug. 10, at the Board of Education Office in Bremen.