Education financing to dominate meeting

Two school districts minus millions of dollars in funding equals one uncertain future for Orange County education.

The school boards from Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and Orange County Schools will meet tonight with the Board of Orange County Commissioners to discuss how this new math could affect the next school year.

“The whole agenda is focused on financial issues,” said Neil Pedersen, superintendent of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

Pedersen said representatives from both districts will present their budgets as well as an outlook for the next year, which is considered bleak by many.

Next year, both districts will lose millions of dollars in federal and state funding as stimulus money dries up.

“What we’re looking at is a potential gap of $7.9 million,” said Orange County Schools spokesman Michael Gilbert.

This would equal a loss of about 131 new-teacher positions, he said.

“We have under 1,000 employees total,” Gilbert said. “There’s no way we could lose one in 10.”

Pedersen said his district stands to lose 5 to 6 percent of its budget if the county doesn’t do something to bridge the funding gap.

“They’re somewhat aware of this situation that everybody’s anticipating,” he said, “but we haven’t talked too much about what they might do.”

The increase would generate $2.3 million annually, 42.5 percent of which would be split between the two school districts.

At the meeting county commissioners will clarify just how the money will be distributed, a topic that could prove to be divisive.

“We didn’t really talk about how the money will be split, but we did say that there may be some inequities,” said Donna Coffey, vice-chairwoman of school board for Orange County. “It’s all very unclear.”

Bernadette Pelissier, vice-chairwoman of the commissioners, said the county will probably follow its usual model for revenue allotment.

“It’s likely to be distributed on average daily membership, proportional to the number of children in the school districts,” Pelissier said.

“It wouldn’t make sense to distribute it 50-50.”

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has about 4,500 more students than Orange County Schools, qualifying it for more funding.

Chapel Hill also has a tax for education while the county does not.

Debbie Piscitelli, an Orange County Schools board member, said splitting the revenue evenly between two schools — a practice called “fair funding” — would better serve all of the county’s students.

She said that although the budget cuts will affect both districts, Orange County could suffer more.

“We both are asking for money, and we both are talking about needs, but it’s different when you put need to need,” Piscitelli said.

Commissioner Barry Jacobs said the issue of fair funding stems back to 2004, when a proposal to merge the two school systems was on the table because of a perceived inequality between the districts.

“While on the surface, if you have more students you should get more money, this other school system with limited resources can’t necessarily serve their students at the same level,” he said.

Jacobs said he doesn’t think the push for fair funding will succeed, but he supports the rationale.

“I’m willing to be persuaded,” he said, “but it strikes me as an opportunity to help a school system that has limited resources.”

Contact the City Editor at citydesk@unc.edu.