Happy New Year from Tahlequah Public Schools. We are excited to start the new year and see what it holds for TPS.
Tahlequah Public Schools receives revenue from multiple areas. Ten percent of our revenue comes from local sources. Those sources would be ad valorem taxes, rentals, and interest earnings. Sixty three percent of our revenue comes from the state. Those sources are motor vehicle tax collections, rural electric cooperative taxes, state school land earnings, Adult Basic Education and Career Tech. The state will also give us an allocation for textbooks. The last revenue is our federal revenue. Twenty five percent of our revenue is federal. Our federal revenue is comprised of formula grants, competitive grants, and other funding sources such as American Rescue Plan money. Formula grants are funding sources based on our demographics. These are grants such as Title I or Title VI. Competitive grants are grants that we apply for to help our district offer additional resources for our students and staff. A few important grants that we have that offer important resources for our students are our 21st Century grants, Innovative Literacy, the Counselor Corps grant, and MHAT grant just to name a few.
st Century grants are how we pay for our after-school programs at Cherokee, Sequoyah, and the Middle School. The grant also helps pay for robotics competition fees at those sites. The Innovative Literacy grant allows us to pay for the Read 180 reading intervention program and all the great free books that our students get to take home. Reading teachers and EL teachers are a couple of the positions that we pay for out of the grant. The Counselor Corps grant has allowed us to add more counselors at the sites to focus on addressing student needs. Anticipated outcomes of adding additional counselors will be improvement in student attendance rates, decrease in student substance abuse, and improvement in academic achievement.>span class="eop">
This is the last year we will have the American Rescue Plan monies. This grant has provided math coaches, a preventionist, counselors, online academic assessment programs, educational curriculum, Chromebooks, interactive panels for the classrooms, textbooks, a new technology vehicle, a special education bus, technology upgrades and roof repair in the district. MHAT stands for Mental Health Awareness Training. This grant allows us to provide training for our staff on teaching children exposed to trauma. It also allows us to provide training for parents at Parent engagement events.
I am sure you have noticed all the wonderful bond projects going on around the district. We have a new turf field between the middle school and high school. Greenwood has an efficient new parking lot, and you will notice the new storm shelter which will house classrooms and music room. Cherokee has a new addition that is in progress and a new library almost complete in the old cafeteria space. The new athletic building by the baseball and softball fields is almost complete. We expect all projects to be completed by August of 2024 or before.
Soon you will be able to make online donations to any of your favorite Tahlequah Public School groups. Log on to https://ok-tahlequah-lite.intouchreceipting.com/default and select the school and then what club or group you would like to donate to. Be sure to check out the Discover More in the months to come to see everything we have added!
Written by Sabrina Garner, Director of Finance