District overview
Lawrence County Schools
Funding structure, how it compares to peers, and where major projects stand.
What the reviewed record establishes
The elected Board governs districtwide finance, staffing, curriculum, policy and facilities. Lawrence County High School’s SBDM Council separately records school-level budgets, policies, staffing consultation and activities. FY2026 year-end reports are expressly unaudited; the October 19 agenda proposes accepting later audit reports, but that future meeting has not occurred as of October 18.
FY2026 General Fund resources exceeded expenditures in the unaudited closeout
The July 23 unaudited AFR reports $27,701,915.50 in current-year General Fund receipts and $28,783,189.57 in resources after including a $1,081,274.07 opening balance, against $26,908,486.29 in expenditures. It reports $1,957,112.21 in General Fund balance, including $1,874,703.28 unassigned.
State sources supplied most FY2026 General Fund receipts
The unaudited AFR reports $6,672,849.02 from local sources, $20,201,875.38 from state sources including $7,248,919.02 in on-behalf payments, $380,204.37 from federal sources and $446,986.73 in other receipts. Those categories total $27,701,915.50 in current-year receipts; the $1,081,274.07 opening balance is separate.
The FY2027 tentative budget totals $36,686,227.20
May 28 minutes approve the tentative all-funds budget and report a 3.9% contingency, 17.43% CERS assumption and 74% of Fund 1 budgeted for staff salaries. September 29 agenda materials propose a later working budget, but no minutes establish its adoption or total.
Facilities work centers on new Louisa West and Louisa East renovations
The Board approved a $2.944 million community-center purchase agreement subject to Fiscal Court consideration; June minutes scheduled a closing for June 30 but the reviewed record does not document the closing itself. The Board later approved BG-1 and construction-manager contracts for Louisa West BG27-076 and Louisa East BG27-077. Physical completion and final project totals remain unestablished.
Current phone and AI policies apply districtwide
Phone policy permits possession but generally bars personal-device use during instructional time, with emergency and teacher-authorized instructional exceptions. Electronic-media policy requires responsible AI procedures addressing safety, privacy, ethics and inspiration versus cheating.
Districtwide per-pupil spending remains unavailable
The record provides district fund totals and a $4,626 SEEK estimate used in the FY2027 tentative-budget discussion, but no same-period enrollment figure paired with audited districtwide spending. No district per-pupil spending amount is calculated.
The September 21 and September 29 Board records are agendas, and October 19 is a future agenda. Their working-budget, schematic-design and audit-acceptance items remain proposals unless later action records are published.
Where the district stands
Major projects
New Louisa West Elementary
Design and contracting stage; final cost and completion date not establishedThe Board approved a $2.944 million purchase agreement subject to Fiscal Court consideration, then selected RossTarrant and Trace Creek and approved BG27-076 and initial design invoices. June minutes scheduled a closing for June 30, but the reviewed record does not establish that closing occurred. Later schematic-design and invoice items appear in agendas without collected action records.
- Board authorized bonds not to exceed $3.5 million and approved acquisition BG-1.
- Board approved the $2.944 million purchase agreement subject to Fiscal Court consideration.
- Minutes scheduled a June 30 closing; the collected record does not document the closing itself.
- Board approved BG27-076 and the Trace Creek construction-manager contract.
- Agenda proposed schematic designs; no collected minutes establish action.
Funding
A May 6 bond resolution authorized up to $3.5 million for the acquisition; the reviewed record does not assign a final all-in project total.
Louisa East Elementary renovation
Four classrooms and one resource room planned; final cost and completion date not establishedThe Board approved a DFP adjustment for four classrooms and one resource room, selected RossTarrant and Trace Creek, and approved BG27-077. Later schematic-design items remain agenda proposals in the collected record.
- Board approved the DFP adjustment and architect solicitation.
- Board selected architect and construction manager and approved an $8,662.50 architect invoice.
- Board approved BG27-077, Trace Creek contract and an $8,853.29 architect invoice.
Funding
No complete project budget or final funding mix is established in the reviewed sources.
Blaine Star Academy
$1 million implementation approved; later minutes report launchApril minutes approve a three-year $1 million implementation agreement. May minutes approve $550,000 and $450,000 invoices, and August minutes describe the academy as launched with advanced technology and furniture for seventh- and eighth-grade math and science.
- Board approved the three-year $1 million implementation.
- Board approved $550,000 and $450,000 implementation invoices.
- Minutes report the academy launched at Blaine.
Funding
State STAR Academy grant described in Board minutes.
Recent news
All 414 collected official source records were restored and reconciled to 412 unique byte representations; every unique representation was substantively reviewed and the two byte-identical duplicates were mapped. Coverage includes Board and Finance Corporation records, current district policies, finance publications, and official SBDM repositories for Lawrence County High, Blaine Elementary, Fallsburg Elementary, Louisa East Elementary, Louisa West Elementary and Louisa Middle. The 48-page scanned Blaine policy compilation was OCRed page by page and visually checked as a contact sheet because its embedded extraction was incomplete. The exact official YouTube channel linked from the Finance Corporation minutes was checked; its newest visible Board video is from January 2022, so it provides no trailing-year recording corpus.
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