The 1st meeting of the Budget Review Subcommittee on Education of the Interim Joint Committee on Appropriations and Revenue was held on Thursday, January 25, 2001, at 10:00 AM, in Room 149 of the Capitol Annex. Senator Dan Seum, Chair, called the meeting to order, and the assistant called the roll.
Present were:
Members: Senator Dan Seum, Co-Chair; Representatives Joe Barrows, Barbara Colter, Mark Treesh, Gippy Graham, Charlie Miller and Jodie Haydon.
Guests: John Robinette, Department of Juvenile Justice; Wendell McCourt, Department of Corrections; Alicia J. Sells, KSBA; Glen Brandt, Petie Day, KDE; Bob Shimer, Allen Eskridge, and Ann Hester, GOPM; Sissy Cawood, CFC; Tony Sholar, KY Chamber of Commerce.
LRC Staff: Wanda Meeks, Dudley Cotton, Charles Shirley, Jerry Bailey, Jenny Urie, Carol Coleman and Bettina Abshire.
Chairman Seum called the meeting to order. The following requests for Interim Appropriation Increases were discussed and approved.
Education, Arts, and Humanities Cabinet: KY Arts Council in the amount of $40,000, Federal Funds, for a grant from the NEA for the Folklife Festival; and the KY Arts Council, Restricted Funds, in the amount of $180,000 for a grant to the Blue Apple Players and the Cultural Highway. Marlene Helms, Secretary, Education, Arts, and Humanities Cabinet, and Jerry Combs, Executive Director of the KY Arts Council, discussed the Council’s appropriations.
The KY Heritage Council requests an increase in Restricted Funds to be received from the KY Renaissance in the amount of $250,000 to provide Main Street managers.
The Department of Library and Archives, General Operations, requests Restricted Funds totaling $50,000 to be received from the imprest cash account and the Baker and Taylor Settlement and will be used to provide copier equipment.
The Office of the Secretary requests a transfer in the amount of $50,000 in Restricted Funds to the Underground Railroad Program from the Heritage Council.
Glen Brandt, KY Department of Education, Executive Policy of Management, discussed the department’s request to increase Federal Funds in the amount of $162,000. Representative Graham asked how the Byrd Scholarships are determined. Glen Brandt responded that once interested persons send in an application, a group of citizens and educators, not employees of the Department of Education, would sit down and review the applications and make their decisions based on federal criteria. This also would be coordinated by the counselors that would determine the eligibility of the applicants and refer them directly to Frankfort, where the review committee would make the decisions as to the recipients.
Charles Harmon and Ann Rose, Workforce Development Cabinet, discussed the request for an appropriation increase by the Department of Adult Education & Literacy in Restricted Funds totaling $1,725,700. A request for the Council for PostSecondary Education in the amount of $1.5 million and a carry forward in the amount of $225,000 to fund a Model Adult Educational program was also discussed. Representative Graham asked the agency to define the “New Opportunity Grant” contract. Ann Rose stated these were grants where dollars would be received from the Council on PostSecondary Education. Representative Colter asked if the guidelines had been sent out and if the time limit was up to request funding. Ms. Rose responded that they had received the proposals and that the review committee would be meeting in the next couple weeks to review those received. Ms. Rose stated that there would be additional funds and other opportunities to apply at a later date. Chairman Seum asked for a motion to recommend approval, which was seconded by Representative Colter. By voice vote, the motion passed, without objection.
The possibility of utilizing average daily membership verses average daily attendance with in the SEEK calculation was discussed by the subcommittee.
There being no other business before the Subcommittee, the meeting was adjourned at 10:46 AM.