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Board passes budget, discusses search policy

by

Neal Embry

At the Sept. 10 meeting, the Vestavia Hills School Board passed the budget for the fiscal year 2019, as well as the capital plan.

Previously, the board heard the budget presented several times by Courtney Brown, the school’s chief financial officer. The school is expecting a 3 percent increase in local revenue, based on ad valorem taxes. The school has $12 million in reserves, a conservative estimate, which equals two months of operational monies, double what the state requires. The largest expense is the $22 million transfer to capital projects for the new construction ahead of the 2019-20 school year.

While the board passed several updated policies, a policy pertaining to student searches was tabled after there was expressed concern over what the policy could mean for school officials.

School attorney Patrick Boone said his understanding of the policy is if a school official searches a student because they suspect them of a certain offense, the student can only be punished if they are found to have committed that specific offense, and not any other offense that may be found as a result of the search.

“If the student has violated something else, a different policy, then it might be an illegal search,” Boone said.

“So if a [school resource officer] searches for a cigarette and finds a knife or a weapon, the student can’t be punished for the weapon?” board member Steve Bendall asked.

The school does not have to have probable cause, only reasonable suspicion, Boone said.

“But at the same time, in fairness to the students, this policy seems to say to me that if you suspect that Johnny’s done this, and you find out he’s done something else, then there’s no prosecution,” Boone said.

The board voted to table the policy until the October meeting.

In other business, the board:

In addition to approving recommended personnel actions, the board also approved the following consent items:

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