Board shifts budget priorities

Local school leaders tackled their district’s budget outlook as they entered the second day of an annual planning retreat.

Members of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education received reports Tuesday on the school system’s financial situation for the 2005-06 school year.

Ruby Pittman, the district’s finance director, told board members that cuts in federal and state funding and a reduction in the district’s growth projections would affect next year’s budget.

Those projections indicate that the number of new students to the district will decrease from more than 300 to about 100 students per year during the next three years.

Pittman’s report also included discussion of the new initiative funding for the district — $2,840,683.

Those initiatives include planning and start-up costs for the district’s third high school, which alone is estimated to cost about $1.5 million.

Superintendent Neil Pedersen said that while the costs for the new initiatives are significant, he believes the programs are important to the district.

“Most of the things that are in the (report) are things we are really committed to doing,” he said.

Board member Nick Didow said that if district officials believe that those programs are important, they should request adequate funding from the Orange County Board of Commissioners.

“I don’t believe we will be fulfilling our responsibility if we only put forth to the community and the commissioners a budget recommendation that was anything less than what we really need,” he said.

Valerie Foushee, who left the school board in the fall to serve as a commissioner, also encouraged the board to ask for needed funds.

“I think it’s obvious that if you don’t ask for it, you won’t get it,” she told the board.

The preliminary operating budget includes projected revenue changes, based on county appropriations in per-student funds.

The district estimates losing nearly $55,000 if the county does not change the allocation — now set at $2,623 per student.

Several board members requested that staff provide them with a budget that details how the system will address its student performance.

But allocating funds for student performance was not the only request received Tuesday.

Steve Scroggs, the district’s assistant superintendent for support services, updated school leaders on district capital investment projects, which relate to upkeep of the district’s physical facilities.

He told members that seven of 12 projects slated for completion by the end of the current fiscal year have been complete.

Scroggs also requested $1.23 million for the next fiscal year to be used for projects that need ongoing attention. Those projects include meeting the standards set forth by the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The district’s building improvements during 2005-06 — including the replacement of heating units at Phillips Middle School and a new roof for Frank Porter Graham Elementary School — will total $3.61 million.

“I think when we go through those projects, every one of them is justifiable and good for kids,” Scroggs said.

He also said the district’s third high school is still scheduled to open in Carrboro in August 2007, though over-budget.

Scroggs told board members that he was encouraged by his conversation Friday with Carrboro town officials. But Scroggs said the project’s price tag will only go up with time.

District officials will incorporate Tuesday's input into Pedersen’s budget recommendation, which will be presented to the board in April.

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.