Several projects delayed following cuts in county funds

After a dozen votes and sometimes heated discussion, the Beaufort County Board of Education approved a pared-down construction budget that delays needed drainage work at Northeast Elementary School and projects at two of the county’s high schools.

The changes were made to reflect cuts in the school’s capital budget made earlier this month by the Beaufort County Board of Commissioners as part of that panel’s discussion of the county’s 2011-2012 fiscal year spending plan.

The changes in school construction projects came at a meeting of school leaders Thursday to address the effects of some $786,000 in additional cuts the county’s appropriations to the schools approved June 21 by the county commissioners.

The county commissioners decreased the county’s appropriation to the school system’s operating budget by $440,000 and trimmed $461,000 from the schools’ construction budget.

County leaders approved $11,995,150 in local funds for the school system’s operating budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, down from $12,435,150 for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. They approved $1,138,200 in spending for the school system’s construction budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, down from $1,503,000 in construction spending in 2010-2011.

The school construction budget approved by the county commissioners includes $476,060 from county coffers, $100,000 from unspent contingency funds and $562,140 projected from the North Carolina Education Lottery.

But school leaders predict that lottery proceeds will fall about $80,000 short of those predicted by the county.

Board Chairman Robert Belcher said the capital projects budget should be based on the lower of the two estimates.

These cuts come on top of a cut of $462,058 in appropriations to Beaufort County from the state’s Low Wealth School Fund and $560,763 in new reversions to the state, according to information provided to the board.

The cuts will mean a decrease in per pupil spending of $76 in the 2011-2012 fiscal year down from $1,785 in 2010-2011 to $1,709 in 2011-2012, according to information provided to the school board.

School leaders have said the cuts to the construction budget will have more serious long-term effects than the cuts to the operating budget.

While Beaufort County Schools can “weather the storm” of the operating budget cuts for the 2011-2012 fiscal year, cuts in construction spending are “another matter,” schools Superintendent Don Phipps told the board.

The good news, Phipps told the board, is that the school system will probably be able to absorb the cuts in its operating budget without any layoffs of school personnel, thanks in part to $1.48 million in funds allocated to the schools last year to help create jobs.

“We still feel like we will be able to get through this year without negatively affecting personnel,” he said. “We feel very lucky about that.”

But, he said, the school system has absorbed the loss of some 70 positions over the last two years through retirements and attrition.

Phipps said he planned to absorb the operating budget cuts without using any of the school system’s savings, or fund balance, of some $2.2 million.

The school system’s new construction budget delays $235,397 in spending to improve drainage at Northeast Elementary School, eliminates $43,100 in spending for bus canopies at Northside and Southside high schools, delays the purchase of a new activity bus and trims the budget to replace carpet in a building at Chocowinity Primary, among other cuts.

But the construction spending plan for the 2011-2012 fiscal year approved by the school board differs from the school construction budget approved by the county commissioners as part of their budget negotiations – setting up a possible show-down between the two boards.

“We’re just going to have to negotiate with them,” said Belcher. “There’s going to have to be some give and take.”

The county-commissioner-approved list of school construction projects also includes a list of larger projects – roof projects at Bath Elementary, Chocowinity Middle and Chocowinity Primary schools and a water pumping system at Washington High School, among others – that are to be reviewed by a subcommittee of county commissioners and school leaders before any funds are to be spent.

In other business, the board voted unanimously to apply for a waiver from a new requirement extending the school year by five days.

The board also unanimously approved changes to the school’s 2011-2012 calendar that would allocate five teacher workdays for professional development on changes to the statewide public school curriculum and standards.

As part of the calendar change, the annual convocation of school personnel originally scheduled for Aug. 19, will be eliminated and the day will be used for professional development, Phipps told the board.

The action Thursday by the school board follows action last week by the State Board of Education approved a policy outlining the process for local school districts and charter schools to apply for waivers to the new 185-day instructional calendar for the 2011-12 school year.

The state board granted authority to the State Superintendent June Atkinson to approve waivers for those schools that to use up to five instructional days as teacher workdays for professional development on changes to the statewide public school curriculum and standards.

The new curriculum and standards are scheduled to be implemented in the 2012-13 school year.