The Opp City Board of Education on Tuesday approved a $12.5 million budget for the 2010-2011 fiscal year.

OCS is ending a budget year that has had 7.5 percent proration, and Chief Financial Officer Linda Banks said there are predictions the new budget could possibly be prorated at 3 to 5 percent, or $200,000 to $350,000.

Banks said school officials expect for proration to be declared sometime before the new governor takes office.

Without proration, OCS is projecting revenues of $7.4 million in state funding (60 percent); $2.15 million in federal allocations (17 percent); $2.9 from local funding (23 percent), and $28,500 from other funds such as child nutrition.

OCS Superintendent Michael Smithart said although the budget is conservative, that the system was able to provide each teacher $200 in classroom support money at the local level.

“We aren’t going to go lacking, although it may not be ideal,” he said.

Smithart commended Banks and the other staff for their work to ensure that OCS maintains level funding and to maximize what the system has.

As a means of maximizing what OCS has, the board approved a request to pool fractional units to help pay for a teacher at Opp Middle School and an assistant principal at Opp High School.

The board is requesting that .53 units transfer from OHS and .28 transfer from Opp Elementary School transfer to fund the teacher at OMS, and that 0.25 transfer from both OHS and OES for the assistant principal position.

“The state allows us to pool these units,” Smithart said. “When you earn teacher units sometimes you get them in fractions and this allows us to better use them.”