The Jackson-Madison County School Board will review the current budget proposal at its meeting this week after the Madison County Commission sent it back to the board for revision.

At issue is $1.2 million in capital funds for new laptops for teachers. Commissioner Carl Alexander said that the School Board made a request earlier for more resource officers in the schools, with student safety the highest priority.

“Part of that is through a state grant, and the capitol funds requested went to the Sheriff’s Department budget to pay for one officer in each school and two officers in Northside, Southside, Liberty, and JCM High Schools,” Alexander said.

The budget process for other Madison County departments is complete now, with the exception of the School Board. The County Commission will meet on June 30 to ratify the budget before the new fiscal year starts July 1.

The JMCSS School Board has a special called meeting concerning the budget this Thursday at 8:30 a.m.

The Commission also set the property tax with no rate increase: 1.8736.

There will be a change in policy on hearing public comments before the commission as of July 1. Those who wish to comment will have three minutes instead of five minutes to address the elected officials, and a request must be made at least 48 hours before the scheduled meeting.

As for committee meetings, anyone from the public may attend the meeting and sign-in with a request to speak without the 48-hour rule.

The agenda for each meeting is available on the Madison County website, as are the minutes of the last scheduled meeting.