School Board, County Anxious Over Budget
Posted on: Friday, 28 March 2008, 12:00 CDT
By Mike Wilder, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.
Mar. 28--The timing of a meeting between the Alamance County Board of Commissioners and Alamance-Burlington Board of Education means the school system's budget request for 2008-09 will almost certainly be discussed.
The two boards, along with administrators from the county and school system, will meet April 8 -- two days before the county has a budget retreat. It also comes as school board members and system administrators are preparing a budget request to submit to the county in late April.
For now, it's not clear how the school system and various county departments will fare in their budget requests for 2008-09.
County Manager David Smith said Thursday he's less hopeful than he was a few weeks ago about the county's ability to fund new programs or positions during the next fiscal year.
"For the last couple of months, I had been cautiously optimistic about the budget," he said. "After looking at some preliminary revenue figures, I'm just cautious." Smith said he will share more information with the county commissioners in early April about the budget outlook for 2008-09.
He said sales tax revenues during fiscal year 2007-08 started off strong, but are projected to be lower than desired during the last four or five months of the fiscal year, which ends in June. Smith said in March his impression from talking with the county commissioners was already that "we're going to have a very lean budget this year." This week, Smith neither ruled out nor said the budget would include an increase in the locally paid salary supplement for teachers in the Alamance-Burlington School System. In talking with the school board about what the school system is likely to include in its budget request, Superintendent Randy Bridges said a supplement increase for teachers is the system's highest priority.
A tentative list of proposals the school system is considering as it works on its budget request includes an increase in the local supplement for teachers from 7 percent to 9 percent of their state-paid salary at a cost of more than $1.7 million a year.
After a supplement increase from 6 to 7 percent last year, Smith indicated in March he hoped to include a further increase in the 2008-09 budget, though not necessarily to 9 percent. He said this week he believes "the public totally supports increases for the teachers" and said the county will try to work with the schools to meet funding requests to the extent it can.
Smith said the county has requested information from the school system about the number of employees who work in the system's central administrative offices, along with information about their salaries and locally paid salary supplements. He said he made the request at the suggestion of Commissioner Tim Sutton.
Sutton said he's interested in the information as a followup to a 1999 study about staffing levels in the school system's central office. He said he considers the county's request for the information to be "part of the checks and balances of government." Smith noted that he "is administrative staff " and said it isn't his desire to pick on those employees at the school system's central office, but said he agreed with Sutton it is a good idea for the county to review the information.
TOM MANNING, the school board's chairman, said he was neither surprised nor taken aback by the county's request. But while he wants the school system to be accountable for how it spends money, Manning said, the school board also wants to give Superintendent Randy Bridges the staff he feels is needed to reach the school system's goals.
Besides the budget, Manning said, other potential discussion items for the meeting include crowding in some schools, as well as the related issue of redistricting to help balance enrollment at schools within the system.
School board member Steve Van Pelt said he's hopeful the meeting might give the school system an opportunity to explain how its budget process works.
"We're not asking ... for all the gold in Fort Knox," he said. "We want to have a budget that will help students to do their best in school." Van Pelt said the school system puts together a budget based on what educators at individual schools say is needed. Bridges made a similar comment during a recent school board meeting when he said school system leaders are considering putting a request for additional office staff at schools because principals say that is a major need.
The school board, county commissioners, and members of Alamance Community College's board of trustees also have a joint meeting scheduled for April 3. Martin Nadleman, Alamance Community College's president, said the occasion allows the college and school system to highlight information about joint efforts in which the college provides education or training for high school students.
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Source: Times-News
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