The Troup County school system will have to account for the $3.4 million federal stimulus package it receives for the new budget starting July 1.

The school system, which expects a similar amount in fiscal 2011, will have to report how every dollar was spent.

“It’s not like the bailouts for the banks and financial institutions that received billions and billions,” finance officer Don Miller told school board members Monday.

The stimulus funds will save 48 positions, Miller said.

The school system also will get an extra $2.5 million and $2.4 million, respectively, over the next two years for special education and instruction for low-income students. The extra money will save nine positions and create a few more, Miller said.

“We’ve got to figure out how to spend the money precipitously and have an exit strategy (for fiscal 2011) if the money’s not available and state revenues haven’t come back,” Miller said.

The school system will get $1.8 million from the state’s homeowner tax relief grant, $4,000 more than last year. The legislature said it likely would be the last year for the grant because of revenue shortfalls.

The school board Thursday is scheduled to approve a new budget of $104.4 million, 1.7 percent higher than the current year’s, and keep the same property tax rate of 18.85 mills.

The school system will earn about $3.4 million more in property taxes because of Kia Motors’ payment of $1.9 million and a 1 percent growth in the digest.

State-mandated salary and benefit increases will cost $2 million, and nine teachers and a kindergarten aide have to be hired because of enrollment growth at a cost of $600,000. State budget cuts totaled $4.5 million and interest income fell by $110,000 because rates are down from 4 percent to 3 percent or lower.

The school board Thursday also is expected to pay $274,079.22 to Holt McDougal and Glencoe/ McGraw Hill for middle school English/language arts textbooks that were last purchased in 1995.

The books are out of date and “when you open them up and they start to crumble, you know it’s time” to get new ones, said Sylvia Hooker, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

Joel Martin can be reached at jmartin@lagrangenews.com or 706-884-7311, Ext. 235.