City amps up funding for schools; separation agreement heads to court

By John Mullen
Even as controversy swirls over the allocation of funds in the school split between Gulf Shores and Baldwin County, funding from the city for the school system continues to flow.
At the Jan. 28 meeting the city council OK’d nearly half a million dollars to operate the school system from Jan. 1 through March 31. The city will spend at least $574,000 more during the remainder of 2019 after spending about $519,000 to help the new system get started in 2018.
“You have the school board’s second request for our fiscal year which began in October,” Superintendent Dr. Matt Akin told the council. “You can see in January and February our expenditures are pretty common but we have to start ramping soon.”
That will begin in March, Akin said, when the payroll increases through added personnel and the system will spend $250,000 on a variety of computer systems.
“The reason you see the request goes way up because that’s when we’ll start bringing on additional staff, administrators,” Akin said. “And also, there’s a big expense in technology. We have to buy financial software, student administration software, computers and that kind of thing.”
Meanwhile, the separation agreement is likely headed to court. The Baldwin County Board of Education balked at voting on and passing the separation agreement and instead will file a lawsuit questioning Mackey’s move on the money. Gulf Shores’ board passed and signed the agreement on Jan. 17
“The question is still around money, sales tax, ad valorem tax and September payroll,” Akin told the city council. “There’s disagreement as to how much that is. We think it’s a lot lower than the $7 million amount Baldwin County has suggested.”
In published reports, Mackey said he believed the conflict can be resolved. Tyler, however, said the county wants a judge to hear both sides and make a ruling.
“We are glad to know that the superintendent agrees with us that foundation funds from this school year cannot be provided to a school system which has no students enrolled, but we don’t believe that further clarifications from the superintendent are going to solve the disagreement between the parties at this point,” Tyler said. “We believe that the better and more expeditious resolution is to take this matter to court, where the parties can continue their negotiations and/or clarifications under the supervision of a judge.”
Gulf Shores School Board President Kevin Corcoran said part of Mackey’s final draft includes the new system collecting its share of sales taxes earmarked for schools beginning on June 1. He said the amount collected for schools would be about $40 million June through September with about $15 million collected at Gulf Shores businesses. The city system is due about $2 million from that amount, he said.
“The $2 million is about 11 percent of our total budget,” Corcoran said. “For Baldwin County schools that is about .6 percent of their budget.”
Tyler believes Gulf Shores is not entitled to the collections.
“There are a lot of issues to disagree with in (Mackey’s) letter, but the most glaring is that the state superintendent directs some $7 million in Baldwin County revenue from this school year to a school system that has no students enrolled for this school year – while also directing us to pay all of the expenses through the end of this school year,” Tyler said. “Our disagreement is over money, which belongs to the Baldwin County taxpayers and not Gulf Shores.”
Akin said most of the money – he doesn’t believe the total amount is $7 million – will be to pay teachers who will be working for Gulf Shores.
“We don’t know the exact amount because we don’t know exactly how many teachers we will have,” Akin said. “Whatever that number is, the state department will determine it and say ‘Gulf Shores, here’s your money to pay the teachers who were employed last school year and are now employed with you.
“But it is in Dr. Mackey’s hands to see how that moves forward. I know he knows the urgency of the situation so hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later.”
In other business the council:
• Approved a line of credit with Bancorp South for nearly $10 million to be used to help jumpstart city projects.
• Passed a resolution to allow aerospace company Resicum a kiosk in the Airport Administration Building for $250 a month.
• Ratified contract with Wings and Wheels aircraft detailers to operate at the airport for 12 months and paying the city 2 percent of gross revenues.
• Ratified a contract with Long Bay Charters to operate out of the airport at a cost of $1.15 per 1,000 pounds of maximum certified landing weight of their planes.
• OK’d the surplus of items owned by Gulf Shores Utilities to be auctioned on govdeals.com.
• Voted to reappoint George Harris to a three-year term on the Board of Zoning Adjustment and move Craig Olmstead from his supernumerary position to a regular member of the Board of Zoning Adjustment. Olmstead will replace Richard Schwartz, longtime owner of Doc’s Seafood Shack and Oyster Bar and other restaurants, who is leaving the board after serving 27 years.
• OK’d the transfer of ownership of retired K-9 officer Taz to his handler, officer Shawn Andrews.
• OK’d an assembly permit for the Docs Hot Trot for ARC 5K and one-mile run at LuLu’s on June 15