BOE victors to face smaller budgets

CORRECTION: Due to an editing error, the original version of this story incorrectly stated “After Nov. 8, five of them will be added to the seven-person board for four years.” Four spots will be four years, one seat is for a two year unexpired term. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for any confusion.

School board elections happen every two years — but the members elected this Tuesday will have to handle an unprecedented combination of challenges, officials say.

Among the seven candidates running are incumbents Mia Day Burroughs, Annetta Streater, Jamezetta Bedford and Mike Kelley. New to the race are James Barrett, Raymond Conrad and Kris Castellano.

After Nov. 8, five of them will be added to the seven-person board for four years.

During that time, the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education will have to grapple with previously unexpected growth in student population while operating on a shrinking budget.

And although they are running on similar platforms, the way those elected deal with declining resources will be crucial to the school’s future, said Susan Romaine, chairwoman for the Hogan Farms precinct of the Orange County Democratic Party, which organized a forum for the candidates last week.

Larger district, less money

Stephanie Knott, a spokeswoman for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, said the allocation of resources will dominate the future school board’s agenda.

At the start of the 2011-12 school year, 5,440 elementary-age students were enrolled in the district — 42 more students than was projected.

“We had a spike that we didn’t expect to see last year because growth was down during the recession,” Knott said.

If the district reaches 5,506 students, or 105 percent capacity, the county would have to freeze residential development in the area, in accordance with Schools Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance.

The current board voted last week to jump-start the project, which will need to have construction under way in March in order to open by August 2013. That means construction would occur during the terms of the newly elected and re-elected officials.

“It will be interesting to see how growth continues and how we deal with it,” Knott said.

Romaine said how the school board deals with growth is intricately related with how they decide to spend limited money.

For this school year, the district saw an almost $5.75 million reduction in state money — and though they were able to use a one-time buffer fund to handle the cut, that won’t be there to defray further cuts.

“We’re kind of down to the bone at this point,” Romaine said.

The way scarce financial resources will be allocated dominated the Hogan Farms forum, said moderator Fred Black, a personality at WCHL.

“They all had the idea that there are tough decisions to make, and we’re going to have to make them,” he said.

He said another important issue is helping Thomas Forcella, new schools superintendent, transition into his new job.

Other issues that officials said will be important to this race are the schools’ achievement gap and improving technology within the classroom.

Although more seats on the school board are open this election cycle than in past years, Knott said she does not expect any issues once the new school board members are elected.

Current school board members also help those elected to transition, Knott said.

“The board members created a document they affectionately call ‘Newbie FAQ,’” she said, “to help provide guidance to newcomers to the board.”

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