Chilton County School Superintendent Keith Moore said the school system will be able to pay its payroll in November even though they are only receiving 75 percent of their total allotment from the state.

To make up for the shortfall, the Chilton County Board of Education will have to dip into its reserves for about $800,000.

State School Superintendent Joe Morton said the 75-percent payments will be wired to the system’s accounts Friday. He said Tuesday he hopes the systems will get the remainder of the November payroll funds by Friday, Dec. 5.

Moore was glad the state was able to have 75 percent of the total payroll.

“We were expecting it to be less than that,” he said. “If it had been less, we might not have been able to meet payroll with the reserves.”

This is not the first time Chilton County Schools have had to deal with this shortfall. The state was unable to make its full payroll payment before the end of October because of slow income tax and sales tax receipts.

The board was forced to dip into reserves last month, but that money was refunded to its reserve account once the additional 25 percent came in. The same thing will happen this month when the supplementary money is paid.

The Chilton County Board of Education keeps enough reserves to cover one month’s operating expenses.

“We’re fortunate that we have the reserves so that we won’t have to borrow money to pay payroll,” Moore said. “I’m glad we have the money to make up the other 25 percent.”