Fayette

County schools' proposed instructional budget for

fiscal year 2001 is just shy of $1.18 million,

estimated Stuart Bennett, assistant

superintendent for curriculum and instruction.

"This

is a reduction of about $280,000 across the

board," he noted, comparing the figures to

FY2000.

Monday

night's school board work session allowed

department heads to present their fiscal needs to

the board, and in most cases the budgets either

remained the same as last year or decreased.

The

single most expensive item on each department

budget form was textbooks, costing anywhere from

$10,500 for textbooks in the gifted budget for

grades K-12 to $160,000 for K-12 math textbooks.

The total is approximately $500,000, not

including the cost of the new vocational program

textbook adoption, Bennett said.

"The

vast percentage [of the money] goes to classrooms

and to teaching materials to teach the

class," Bennett said. Money also will be

used to begin replacing computers in writing

labs, Bennett added. Wiring portable classrooms

for internet access and cable is another priority

in the instructional budget.

Orchestra

classes will be added to the curriculum at

Starr's Mill and Fayette County high schools for

the first time next school year.

Another

big ticket item, aside from computers and

instruments, is the quantity of books and

periodicals for the schools' media centers,

reading and language arts programs. Books and

periodicals for the gifted budget are estimated

to cost $12,000; language arts, $21,000; reading

$20,000.

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