Preliminary figures comparing Mississippi Adequate EducationProgram full funding and funding levels recommended by Gov. HaleyBarbour did not include student-related totals that couldpositively impact funding for the Brookhaven School District, saidSuperintendent Lea Barrett.

The fiscal year 2008 funding totals for the district, discussedduring last week’s city school board meeting, showed a $535,177difference between the $12.69 million under the fully funded MAEPformula and the $12.16 million recommended by Barbour. Thegovernor’s proposal would see the city school district receive$71,562 less next year than the $12.23 million received this yearwhile the fully funded MAEP formula would give the district$463,615 more.

Both the MAEP’s and Barbour’s totals would provide a fundingboost for the Lincoln County School District.

Preliminary totals for a fully funded MAEP would give the countyschool district $13.95 million, an increase of $1.13 million overthe current year’s $12.81 million. The governor’s proposal for thedistrict would provide $13.36 million, an increase of $643,618 overthe current level.

The Brookhaven School District funding totals prompted somequestions among district administrators. When Barrett requestedMississippi Department of Education clarification, she said stateofficials told her the preliminary numbers for the city schoolswere incorrect because of two factors.

The first factor was that MDE did not include nearly $500,000 incompensation funding for classes taught at the high school attendedby 114 students from the Mississippi School of the Arts, Barrettsaid. Those students were not included in the MAEP projections.

“The preliminary numbers did not include allocations receivedeach year for educating students at MSA,” she said.

Pete Smith, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said thenumbers used by Barbour to determine his funding proposal werereceived from the department of education and he could not say whatwas included or was not included in those figures.

“These numbers are based on those provided by the department ofeducation, so if there’s any discrepancy there, it will be in theirnumbers,” Smith said.

Smith dismissed the likelihood that the possible omission wouldhave a detrimental effect on the district. The governor is requiredby law to submit his budget by mid-November, which means thepreliminary numbers in his proposed budget are not always entirelyaccurate because some financial reports have not yet become due, hesaid.

“That will be the only budget we will present, but theLegislature will continue to work on it until it is passed,” Smithsaid. “It’s just a proposal.”

The second factor contributing to inaccurate numbers involvesdeadlines for submission of funding proposals. Because thegovernor’s recommendations were required by mid-November, neitherhis numbers nor the preliminary MAEP full funding figures releasedin November include up-to-date Average Daily Attendanceinformation, Barrett said.

Attendance totals for the months of October and November areused to determine ADA funding in the MAEP formula. Because thefigures were needed before the end of November, MDE used ADAnumbers from the 2005-2006 year, with plans to re-evaluate thepreliminary numbers once this year’s reports are complete.

The previous year’s ADA figures would have a detrimental effecton the district’s funding formula as ripples from Hurricane Katrinacontinued to affect the school, Barrett said.

In October and November of 2005, 232 students from the GulfCoast were still enrolled in the district but many missed schooldays while trying to enroll at schools on the coast orre-establishing homes there, Barrett said.

“It made our attendance numbers look bad,” she said. “But ourtrend is really that of increasing enrollment each year.

“It’s nobody’s fault,” Barrett said. “But it made us look likewe had an attendance problem, which we did, but not in anunexpected way.”

In fact, Barrett said when the ADA numbers from this year arefactored into the MAEP formula, she expects the numbers to changedrastically.

“After those numbers are revised, I don’t think we’ll bereceiving less money than we did last year,” Barrett said.

State lawmakers will decide on final funding levels during the2007 legislative session that begins in January.