County Commissioners discuss school board spending

Local school boards met Tuesday with county officials to go over end-of-year spending and review this year’s budget.

“The hardest decisions may still be yet to come,” said Patrick Rhodes, superintendent of Orange County Schools.

The Orange County Board of Commissioners met with both the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education and Orange County Board of Education to discuss 2008-09 year-end revenues and expenditures.

Members also reviewed the approved budget for the 2009-10 school year and provided new board members with an overview of an ordinance to prevent school crowding.

In early spring 2009, school board members made the assumption that Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools would not receive further state funding.

Then, the board made reductions totaling nearly $2 million throughout the spring and early summer.

“Fortunately no teachers were laid off and only 32 teachers did not have their contracts renewed,” said Neil Pedersen, superintendent of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools.

In an attempt to maintain small class sizes at middle schools in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, core teachers are now teaching five class periods instead of four.

Pedersen said that five blocks is the regular class load for all non-core teachers and the schedule will not retract from teachers’ classroom performance.

Auditorium reconstruction was almost stopped before it started at C.W. Stanford Middle School due to budget cuts and a decrease in local revenue.

Funds of $1.2 million for 2009 and $1.5 million for 2010 have recently been allocated to the project.

“We hope to use the auditorium as a great community theater,” Rhodes said. “Both school systems have gotten much use out of the stimulus money.”

The boards mainly discussed ways to provide Orange County students with the best possible education despite tough economic times.


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