In a short noon meeting this Monday the Russell County School Board approved a state-recommended extension on the date for setting staffing levels and approved a school schedule for the coming year.

School would start on August 4th for teachers and the 5th for students.

Fall break would be from the 5th to the 9th of October, with Oct. 12th set aside for a teachers’ professional development day.

That last date however was the tentative portion of the schedule. Superintendent Scott Pierce stressed that parents and students should not plan for children to be out of school on that date because it was a tentative date.

He explained that new regulations may make that day-off-school unnecessary. Pierce said the state is likely to require testing results be reported much earlier and that would mean teachers would not have to spend that day in October going over the results.

“So people don’t need to be planning trips that day,” he added.

Thanksgiving break is set for Nov. 25-27 with Dec 18th being the last day of classes before Christmas break.

Students would return on Jan. 5th. Spring break is April 5-9 and the last day of classes was set as May 17th.

During the financial report the board was told the district started the month of January with just under $4 million in the bank and after over $2 million in expenditures finished the month with just over $4 million.

The revenues exceeding expenditures could be more pronounced as Pierce said there are federal and state promises of more funding.

But those are not fixed yet, and he said that was the reason the board extended the deadline for nailing down how many teachers and staff workers would be assigned to the different schools for the 2009-10 school year.

The board also approved $41,000 to pay Lee Carpeting, a contractor on the Band Room construction.