North Wake News

Wake Forest Elementary School issued the following announcement on Apr. 14.

2020-21 Superintendent's Proposed Budget

SUPERINTENDENT'S BUDGET LETTER

Wake County Board of Education:

I am writing this budget message at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has left many of us struggling to understand what will happen in the next 30, 60 or 90 days – let alone the duration of the coming school year. In doing so, I find myself returning to our school district’s core beliefs.

In my first budget message last year, I chose to focus on the first core belief of our Vision 2020 Strategic Plan. “Every student is uniquely capable and deserves to be challenged and engaged in relevant, rigorous and meaningful learning each day.”

None of us at the time understood how that belief would come to be tested. But this pandemic has not changed our priorities; it has simply placed them in a new light.

Feeding children, an often overlooked routine that provided breakfast and lunch to nearly one-third of our 162,000 students, is now a critical district function for entire families. Student-teacher relationships – the foundation of K-12 education– are re-emerging from their own quarantine. And we are compressing years of computer laptop distribution into weeks in order to improve access.

While I do not know what our families will need to be made whole again in 2020-2021, I know the budget I am proposing today falls short of even the challenges we identified before the pandemic.

I also understand the economic fallout from COVID-19 has likely just begun. Should it persist, the needs of our community could quickly outpace the county’s resources. That is why I am proposing a budget increase that is much smaller than recent years.

More specifically, I am recommending a request of $29,936,016 for the 2020-2021 school year. Of that amount, $18.4 million is driven by current and expected legislative requirements. Another $2.1 million is tied to increasing property costs. And $2.8 million is needed to pay for the opening of new schools.

I appreciate this recommendation will require further collaboration with the county in the coming weeks and months as the full effect of COVID-19 becomes clearer. However, to recommend less than $29.9 million could require further reductions in areas where the district never caught up following the Great Recession.

Familiar issues, such as those identified in last year’s multi-year funding plan, will still remain when this pandemic ends.

Class size restrictions, for example, will continue to put pressure on many schools, especially those in western Wake County. Specifically, the smaller classes required by law will mean hiring additional teachers and finding more space.

And despite an initial projection of nearly flat enrollment growth, that prediction no longer seems likely. This is because current state policies allowed charter schools in Wake County to delay their openings after public school projections were already announced.

Of course those students will still need a classroom. And with nearly four of every five school-aged children in Wake County attending traditional public schools, chances are excellent that the classroom will be part of the Wake County Public School System.

We are pleased to serve them.

When needs such as these are combined with legislative requirements, it is difficult to identify ways to reduce this proposed budget further. That is because the legislative changes, new school openings, long-deferred operating costs and property cost increases represent virtually all of the $29.9 million in this budget proposal.

Of course, our options as a school district could change if any of these requirements change in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Before 2019-2020  was permanently altered, thousands of employees and students were in the midst of a very good year. It would be easy – and wrong – to overlook those accomplishments today. For example:

Our graduation rate is the highest in the district’s history at 89.9 percent. For the sixth consecutive year, the rate of improvement for minority students exceeded the district’s growth rate.

The graduation rate at more than two-thirds of our high schools now exceeds 90 percent. Eight schools posted graduation rates above 95%, including three with a graduation rate of 100%.

More than 97 percent of teachers met or exceeded NC academic growth standards this past year. We have led the nation in the number of National Board Certified teachers for 14 consecutive years.

A large majority of our schools are diverse and thriving. In addition, Magnet Schools of America named 39 of 51 Wake County magnet schools as either Schools of Excellence or Schools of Distinction. 

With support from the county on a multi-year funding plan, starting pay for our bus drivers was increased to $15 an hour.

 Our school district is an economic engine for our community in good times, and a foundation upon which to build when times are lean.

In much the same way I opened this message, I am closing with a reference to our school district’s core beliefs. The sixth and final belief in the Vision 2020 Strategic Plan was written by a broad cross-section of our community.

It states that “Wake County residents value a strong public school system and will partner to provide the support and resources to fully realize our shared vision, accomplish the mission, and sustain our core beliefs.”

We look forward to our continued partnership with County Commissioners and staff while building a budget for 2020-2021.

Our shared vision is found in the hopes and dreams for our children. I believe this proposed budget and our continued work together can keep those hopes and dreams alive while our community works together in a time of crisis.

Respectfully,

 

Cathy Q. Moore

WCPSS Superintendent

Original source: https://www.wcpss.net/budget