Andalusia City Schools will operate under at $16.5 million budget for the 2018 budget year.

Board of education members approved the budget Thursday night. The budget includes:

• $9.9 million in state funds (60.6 percent)
• $2.09 million in federal funds (12.75 percent)
• $4.34 million in local funds (26.42 percent)
• $33,000 in other allocations (less than 1 percent)

Most of the expenditures are for instruction (52 percent) and instructional support services (12.13 percent).

The state allocates funds for teaching units based on enrollment, and the first 20 days of school after Labor Day are used to calculate the funding formula for the following year. Andalusia’s average daily membership for the fall of 2016 was 1,675.4 students, down 12 students from the previous year.

Based on those enrollment numbers, the system earned 108.79 teachers, librarians, counselors, and administrators. The funded an additional 42.47 education jobs, and the federal government funded 34.83 jobs. Local education dollars funded 2.51 jobs, according to numbers supplied to local board members. The system has a total of 188.61 employees.

In approving the budget, the board also officially set a pay scale for salaries, supplements, and substitutes, and voted to increase substitute pay to $60 per day for teacher, paraprofessional and secretary substitutes, bus driver substitutes, and nurse substitutes.

It also agreed to pay a higher rate for retired teachers who substitute – $75 per day.

In other business, the board:

• Accepted the resignation of Tambry Jewell as guidance counselor at the junior high school;
• Hired Amanda Furr as a nurse paraprofessional at the elementary school.