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Thursday evening’s Dallas County Board of Education meeting began with several presentations, the first of which was delivered by Dr. Legland Burge, Partnership Specialist with the Atlanta Regional Census Center.

Legland informed the board members how important census participation is for federal funding, particularly for students.

Legland cited the comment Gov. Kay Ivey made last year in which she stated every student in the state brought roughly $1,600 in funding to the state.

Leglund said that billions of dollars in funding were lost during the last census that could have been used for education, among other things.

The census representative also mentioned how important the census was in congressional representation.

Leglund said that if enough Alabamians go unaccounted for, the state could lose one of its seven U.S. Representatives.

In conclusion to his presentation, Legland encouraged the board members and Dallas County Schools Superintendent Hattie Shelton to organize at least one Census Program in each of its schools before the arrival of March, one month before the Census is Counted on April 1.

“Your students can create a lot of energy around the census,” he said.

After Leglund finished his census presentation, Shelton recognized retiree Allison Harper for 19 years of service with Dallas County Schools.

Harper taught at Tipton – Durant Middle, Salem Elementary and Southside High schools during her almost two decades as an educator.

Shelton also presented Dallas County Schools Transportation Employees with a certificate of excellence for an outstanding record in vehicle maintenance.

Finally, the superintendent presented certificates to each board member – Roy Edwards, Bill Minor, Leroy Miles, Mamie Solomon and Mark Story – in recognition of School Board Appreciation Month.

Principals from several of the district’s schools also presented the board members with gift baskets to show their appreciation.

Elsewhere in the meeting, Dallas County Schools Chief School Financial Officer Sandra Purdie delivered the financial report for the months of October and November.

For the month of October, Purdie said that the Alabama Tax collected was $157,920, the amount of taxes passed through to Selma City Schools was $76,205.08 and all schools have positive balances within their general funds and positive activity fund balances.

Dallas County Schools finished the month of October with $3,407,919 in its general fund balance, $1,230,000 over its $2,177,763 one-month operating reserve.

For the month of November, Purdie said that the Alabama Tax collected was $164,642, the amount of taxes passed through to Selma City Schools was $79,448.88 and all schools once again had positive balances within their general funds and positive activity fund balances.

Dallas County Schools finished the month of November $1,955,023 in its general fund, $222,740 below the monthly reserve of $2,177,763.

Purdie attributed the negative balance to $712,000 in expenditures, including $572,442 that had to be paid for buses and that, with October being the beginning of the fiscal year, the system has not yet received all of its anticipated funding from federal programs.

At the time of the meeting, however, Purdie said that the general fund was “where it was supposed to be.”