Agenda - 09-26-2005-1 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orange County Schools 200 East King Street Hillsborough, NC 27278 Dr. Shirley Carraway (919) 732 -8126 Telephone Superintendent (919) 732 -8120 Fax www.orange.kl2.nc.us September 20, 2005 Dear Parents and Community Members: After a budget deliberation process that began last December, the Orange County Board of Education has adopted its budget for the 2005 -2006 school year. A delayed state budget and the need to trim the local budget because of the funding shortfall caused the process to extend into September. The district's original budget proposal, presented to the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) on June 9, was developed from the Orange County Schools' long -range Strategic Plan, the recommendations of the Middle School Task Force and the preliminary recommendations of the High School Task Force, and was reinforced by the findings of the BOCC- commissioned Educational Excellence Workgroup. The requests fell into four categories: literacy development and support; dropout prevention; increasing student enrollment and performance in challenging coursework; and high quality teacher recruitment, development, and retention — all critical needs identified by these committees composed of community members and staff. While the Board of Education requested $3,272,180 from the BOCC to meet these needs, the Commissioners appropriated $1,687,993. The district then began the task of selecting what to cut, although this task could not be completed until the state budget was adopted and we knew where state shortfalls would occur. This year, required state budget reductions, called "discretionary cuts" because school districts can choose which budget items to cut, amounted to $216,000 for Orange County Schools. In the past, these discretionary cuts came at the same time that districts received extra teaching positions to comply with state - mandated "class -size reduction." Because Orange County Schools was already in compliance with state class -size regulations, the district was able to return the money for those extra positions to meet its discretionary cuts. This year, because there are no "extra" positions in the state budget, the district had to pull from existing funds to return $216,000 to the state. Once the Board of Education knew the state and local budget picture, they began to work on how to remain solvent while meeting the community- supported budget requests. In the end, the Board decided that our district must continue to move forward. Acting on the philosophy that Orange County Schools needs to provide an education that is appropriate for every child — right now and not just at some vague time in the future — the Board tapped the system's fund balance to pay for the most significant needs. They did not take this step lightly.