Bowling Green Independent Schools approved a redistricting plan that would move about 25 current Potter-Gray Elementary School students to T.C. Cherry Elementary School.

The new T.C. Cherry building will open in August, with room to accommodate more students, while an anticipated large influx of enrollment at Potter-Gray could put the school above the desired enrollment of 450 students.

The redistricting plan covers an area of downtown bounded on one side by 10th Avenue and on the other side by First Avenue, spanning between High and Center streets.

Superintendent Joe Tinius said five families attended an April 20 forum to discuss the planned redistricting, with objections coming mainly from parents of children who have spent five years at Potter-Gray and would be spending their final elementary school year at another school.

Tinius said Monday that parents who wish to do so can apply for an inter-district transfer, but the redistricting move would be the best step for the future to help enrollment at both schools.

“We feel like in looking at everything beyond next year to three, five, seven years down the road, this is a change we need to make,” Tinius said.

The board also passed a tentative budget Monday of $38.6 million for the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The tentative budget is the second of three budgets for the upcoming year to be considered and approved by the city school board of education - it is this budget that will be submitted for approval to the Kentucky Department of Education and that the district will use at the start of the year.

Enrollment and staffing numbers will solidify at the beginning of the next school year, causing the budget to go up or down correspondingly from what the board approved Monday night, according to district finance director Jeff Herron.

“This budget is based on the people we have currently,” Herron said.

The approved budget contains total general fund revenues of $27.9 million.

The majority of general fund expenditures for the upcoming fiscal year will go toward instruction, a total of $14.9 million that encompasses employee salaries and benefits as well as supplies among other uses.

Additionally, the budget projects $7.1 million in property tax revenues and carries $14.4 million in revenue through the Support Education Excellence in Kentucky program, a state funding number also subject to change due to fluctuations in enrollment and staffing.

The SEEK number is a $510,151 increase over the actual allocation to the district during this fiscal year.

In a separate action, the school board approved three new teacher positions to be paid through SEEK funding - a reading teacher position at Bowling Green Junior High School and teacher positions at T.C. Cherry and Dishman McGinnis elementary schools, effective Aug. 3.

Meanwhile, a 21st Century learning grant expires after this school year, resulting in the loss of the 21st Century Program Coordinator and seven Group Leader positions at Parker-Bennett-Curry Elementary School paid for by the grant.

Health aide positions at Parker-Bennett-Curry and Dishman McGinnis elementary schools and Bowling Green Junior High School will also be eliminated effective June 30, because the Barren River District Health Department will begin providing nursing services for those schools.

Students recognized

Monday night’s school board meeting was held at Bowling Green High School, having been moved there from Joel Brown Administration Building as to have enough room to accommodate all the students who were recognized for various accomplishments.

Sixteen BGJHS students were recognized for being invited to attend the Duke University Talent Identification Program Grand and State Ceremonies. The Grand Ceremony recognizes seventh-grade students with a composite ACT score of 26 or higher or a composite SAT score of at least 1,850.

Sneha Chhachhi and Chloe Harkins have been invited to the Grand Ceremony.

Invited to the State Ceremony, which honors seventh-graders who meet scoring requirements in at least one ACT or SAT testing category were Joseph Ayers, Katie Berryman, Lauren Elson, Chandler Fane, Caitlyn Galloway, Schuyler Green, Olivia Mitchell, Suzanne Moore, Auburn Payne, Emily Pride, Molly Thomas, Vanesa Veletanlic, Kathryn Wyrick and Kevin Ziegler.

Bowling Green High School’s eight 2009 Kentucky Governor’s Scholars and its co-ed cheerleading team were also recognized for their various honors.

This year’s BGHS Governor’s Scholars are Jeffrey Austin, Keyana Boka, Emily Gott, Shelby Lawson, Josephine Lee, Brandon Russell, Carlos Sweeney and Sophie Wohltjen.

BGHS junior Carrie Costellow was also recognized for receiving the 2009-10 NSLI for Youth Scholarship, which will allow her to spend her senior year studying in Egypt.

A student in the high school’s Arabic program, Costellow has previously studied for two summers in Egypt and Jordan.