Brewon School says fundraising fills gaps after levy and Title I limits; board to review materials and donor options

Brewon School faculty and parent representatives told the Preston County Board of Education on May 11 that the school relies on extensive fundraising to cover essential classroom supplies, software licenses, tutoring and furniture after levy-era and Title I funding shifts left gaps in school-level budgets.

Rebecca Stump (faculty chair) and Susan Moran (school financial secretary) presented a list of fiscal-year 2026 expenditures funded from school-level fundraising and booster accounts that totaled roughly $27,894 and described how the school has had to pay for consumable materials, classroom furniture, student planners and other items that teachers previously expected to be supplied by central funds. They said Brewon has also struggled to staff federally-funded tutoring contracts and therefore could not fully spend its targeted Title I allocation for 2025–26.

District staff explained the background: step seven (county instructional supplies) is allocated by formula and cannot legally be used to create a permanent supplement for non-title schools to the point of supplanting other schools; a school must meet schoolwide Title I thresholds (roughly 40% free/reduced-price meal level) to use Title I schoolwide funds. Brewon qualifies for targeted Title I but not schoolwide status under current percentages. Staff also reiterated that the district now pays some centralized costs—copier leases and athletic coaching salaries were cited as examples of county-level coverage introduced in prior years—and that various grants and mini-grant cycles had previously helped some schools offset capital and curricular costs.

Teachers said classrooms still had immediate needs: broken science stools, supplies bought personally by teachers, and program license renewals that teachers feel are pedagogically necessary (e.g., online curricular elements). Board members and staff proposed practical next steps: district staff offered to (1) let Brewon representatives inspect available surplus materials at Fellowsville, (2) evaluate eligibility for donor programs such as DonorsChoose and World Vision, and (3) clarify which curriculum licenses the district funds centrally versus which would require school funding.

The board did not reallocate funds during the session but asked administration to follow up and bring options back to a future meeting. Brewon representatives said they will continue fundraising but requested clearer, predictable central support for basic instructional materials.

Quote: “This is basically our total expenses that we've had to pay … this is what I'm going to have to try to come up with to run my school,” Brewon faculty chair Rebecca Stump said, summarizing the school’s FY26 fundraising expenditures.

Ending: District staff will arrange a materials inspection, assess donor eligibility and program licensing needs, and return with recommended budget or resource-allocation options; the board emphasized the need to balance equity across schools while respecting statutory restrictions on Title I and step seven funds.