SPANISH FORT, Ala.—The professional fates of teachers and support staff laid off in late April at all four Spanish Fort feeder schools remain in limbo while Baldwin County education officials assess “critical” needs in determining how to dispense with $6.3 million in federal stimulus funding.

Baldwin County Board of Education President Tracy Roberts said concrete numbers are not available this early in the assessment process, but she hopes the board can reinstate a considerable portion of the 330 positions—both teaching and support—eliminated countywide three weeks ago.

“I hope we’ll be able to hire back maybe as many as half. At this time, the school board—and particularly the human resources department—is trying to stay in contact with every single school and determine the most critical areas of need,” Roberts said, referring to an infusion of federal stimulus funds to offset the effects of statewide proration.

Jean McCutchen, the school system’s chief financial officer, explained that although Baldwin County will receive $23 million over the next two years in federal stimulus funds, or roughly 3.2 percent of the state’s total $700 million allocation, only $6.3 million of the amount is unrestricted.

“The only part of the federal stimulus money we can use to help reduce the impact of staff reductions is the fiscal stabilization money, and you have to remember that that’s soft money that won’t be here two years from now,” McCutchen said.

The balance of the funding is earmarked for programs such as special education, which is why Baldwin County Superintendent Faron Hollinger has placed the highest priority on restoring teacher units for the discretionary funds, she said.

“Those monies will be devoted to salaries and textbooks,” McCutchen said.

Of course, funding rendered unattainable by earmarks is an old refrain for Baldwin County Schools.

In a program referred to as “equity funding,” the state began in 1996 retaining 10 mils from each school system to be placed in the Education Trust Fund to help offset local tax revenue shortfalls. A mil is one-one-thousandth of a property’s value dedicated entirely to educational spending.

The state program, also called the “10-mil match” was designed to level the funding playing field, but Roberts and McCutchen agree it essentially strips Baldwin County of any discretionary funding remaining after its 12-mil ad valorem taxes are collected each year.

“In addition to the 10-mil match, we’re also required to set aside another .865 mils for debt service and capital outlay, so as far as our 12 mils are concerned, we have less than two mils left unrestricted; whereas, Vestavia Hills or Mountain Brook or Hoover are going to have considerably more discretionary local monies to help fund personnel when proration takes effect,” McCutchen said.

Indeed, Hoover City Schools assess residents 46.1 mils, while the neighboring systems of Mountain Brook and Vestavia assess 52.9 and 52.05 mils respectively, meaning the 10-mil match absorbs less than one-quarter of the local funds collected in the suburban Birmingham systems as opposed to the 83 percent absorbed in Baldwin County.

“It’s a problem for Baldwin County because we’re growing so fast,” said Roberts. “When you add about 500 students per year, you need new schools and construction to eliminate (portable classrooms), but the 10-mil match hurts us because we’re not able to reap any benefit from the increased value of our mils.”

Even with the federal stimulus funds, though, McCutchen said the school system’s $104.9 million budget for 2010 represents an almost 13 percent decrease in funding of $15.5 million compared with the 2009 budget. So while McCutchen said she understands school leaders are anxious to learn what the outcome of any temporary federal windfall might be, she cautions them to be mindful of the process at work.

 “We’re going to make that $6.3 million go as far as it will go,” she said.