TIFTON, Ga. — A new program for fund consolidation was discussed at the Dec. 13 Tift County Board of Education meeting.

The program, which is being piloted in a few other school districts, is a way for schools to get around the strict regulations placed on federal funds by mixing them with state and local funds, according to Dr. Alan Smith, federal programs director for Tift County.

The Tift County School District has approximately $4 million that can be consolidated, according to Smith.

Mixing the funds in one pot effectively strips the money of its identity and allows for increased flexibility in how they may be spent. Increased flexibility in spending will hopefully eliminate wasteful spending on items the school doesn’t need but has to purchase in order to not lose any money.

While there would be a massive amount of legwork needed to implement such a system, the effect of individual schools being able to spend funds where they are actually needed rather than where regulations say they are allowed to spend could help schools obtain resources and items they need, according to Smith.

The board also heard updates about the financial reports, finance committee and curriculum committee.

According to Klinton Guess, director of finance, everything with regards to the financial report and SPLOST report are current and all budgets are tracking as planned and approved.

Property tax collection is ahead of last year’s percentage. While title ad valorum and SPLOST funds are down from last year, everything is in line with previous year’s collections and trends.

The finance committee is discussing returning funds to the public library that were taken away several years ago, when the school district was enacting austerity measures and furloughing teachers.

The committee said that they are in talks with the library, and want to see a plan for how the funds would be spent before turning funds over to them.

The curriculum committee reported on updating graduation requirements after the switch from block scheduling to a seven period hybrid schedule and gave an overview of CCRPI reports.

The possibility of an alternative school for Kindergarten through fifth grade was mentioned as well.

Several updates to policies were given a second reading.

The purchasing policy was updated to take into account the new Local School Governance Teams, and the tenure and fair dismissal policy was updated to allow the school district five years to adequately evaluate new staff before giving tenure. The policy also ensures that teachers retain the tenure they had before the move to a charter system.

The SPLOST project updates showed that the Charles Spencer renovation is 99 percent complete, with the ribbon cutting tentatively scheduled for January of next year.

The high school track resurfacing is a little behind schedule because of the rain, but is still expected to meet its January 2017 completion date.

Doctor Chad Stone presented Eighth Street Middle School’s strategic plan to the board.

While Stone pointed out a few areas in which there could be improvement, he was positive overall about the improvement and success of his students.

The board heard the first reading of an update to the student records policy concerning maintaining the security and accuracy of student records.