The Cumberland County School Board is exploring ways to balance a budget that is facing an estimated $4 million deficit.
The Cumberland County Commission’s Finance Committee requested the School Board look at possible budget cuts to balance the budget. School Board Member Shannon Stout said the two big buckets are compensation and capital projects. Stout said in years past the board has had to pull funds out of the general fund to cover shortages.
“Now that we have gotten to the point where we have these stipulated mandated raises that have to be given that’s kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Stout said. “We can’t keep pulling because now that money is being used for the mandated raises, so we are at that breaking point, but those are the two buckets so where do we look for in those buckets.”
The board had discussions of cutting building maintenance expenses. The board is responsible for budgeting for the maintenance of all school buildings. Board Member Sheri Nichols said the school board should not be responsible for covering all the expenses when it comes to maintenance.
“For 100 years there has been some kind of a fence between this body and the body of the county commission, and I think it’s gonna take a lot of baby steps, but we all need to sit down at the table, we all need to sit down and we need to talk about who is exactly up there because like you said we don’t make anything, we don’t sell anything to pay for what we got,” Nichols said. “If it is Cumberland County Schools, then it’s all of us as stakeholders maintaining this, but the fact that somehow it became the board of ed’s job to take care of 12 schools and maintain them, and then pay all these teachers do everything that we are supposed to be doing, that’s a huge weight.”
Board Member Nicholas Davis said he would prefer the county tax residents at a level where the school system could afford to educate students.
“Instead of worrying about how well our taxes are lets focus on how much our kids are going to actually improve in our area instead of how many retirees are gonna move in, for free,” Davis said. “That would be a key element if we are actually gonna negotiate in our budget, like lets negotiate like how do we make a difference for the better as oppose to continuing to beat down the people that live here and are trying to raise families here.”
The board also discussed removing fluff in regards to money set aside for teachers as in the previous years. The board has generally not spent some $2 million.
Interim Director of Schools Rebecca Farley said she would like have something prepared before presenting to the county in June.
