BY JOHN BRICE
FOR THE LAFAYETTE SUN
CHAMBERS COUNTY — Chambers County School District Chief Financial Officer Cassandra Allen reviewed the district’s financial statement for fiscal year 2026 during an Oct. 28 meeting of the Chambers County Board of Education.
“The supplemental report two is a list of our tax dollars. So through 2026 we received a total revenue of a little over $9.9 million,” Allen said. “That includes ad valorem taxes as well as sales tax and the county appropriations that we received in 2026. In your packet you will see how they are broken down to show you which type of taxes we received and the ending amounts. Supplemental three is just an affidavit for the superintendent to sign off on to certify that we are using our money as it is supposed to be used. We have auditors to also go through our documents that we have said will be arriving soon. This is just another way for the state department to indicate that we are doing what we are supposed to do.”
Later in the meeting, Transportation Director Benji Mitchum presented the district’s annual transportation plan, which must be submitted to the state each October.
“As most of you know we have a transportation route plan that we have to submit to the state every year in October,” Mitchum said. “Ours has been submitted and approved. I just want to go over the highlights of that plan with you. A lot of that stuff is numbers that you can look at as far as route numbers, mileage and things along those lines. Some important numbers and things to point out to you while I am up here. No. 1 thing is we had zero accidents and injuries with students loading and unloading the school bus. That is always the No. 1 priority. We don’t want kids hurt, we want to get kids safely to and from school. Any time we report that zero it is the most important thing we can report the whole school year. Unfortunately every school system in the state or in the country can’t, and you see that in the news. We don’t want to be one of those in the news for something like that. We try to stay safe in that manner.”
Mitchum also discussed transportation mileage and expenses, including costs associated with extracurricular activities.
“We traveled a total of over 587,000 miles last year on Chambers County school buses,” he said. “Over half a million miles. That is a lot of miles. Out of that we spent about $60,000 for extra-curricular mileage rates. Not including the driver’s rate of pay. That is strictly fuel costs and mileage. That is for vans, field trips, athletics [and] everything outside of the regular routes during the day. A decent amount of money but it is something that is well spent on our kids and what they need outside the classroom.”
Superintendent Sharon Weldon concluded the meeting with a report emphasizing the importance of attendance among faculty and administrative staff. She said the district plans to recognize employees who achieved perfect attendance during the previous school year.
“One thing we are doing is focusing on attendance,” Weldon said. “We have done that for years with students, but we are focusing on it. We are about to recognize some employees we have that have perfect attendance for the whole school year last year. We think it is a big deal when students do it, and we give them a certificate. It is a big deal when we have employees that make that commitment, and we are going to be recognizing them.”
