Guilford County School's  2011-2012 Budget Information

Superintendent Presents 2011-12 Budget Recommendations

The Superintendent presented his budget recommendation for the 2011-12 school year to the Board of Education on April 12. In his recommendations, there was a common feeling that we as a school staff share: Enough is enough. We need to fund schools first.

Despite significant budget cuts the past two years, we have made great progress in our strategic plan thanks to the efforts of our dedicated teachers and school staff, our parents, volunteers and of course, our students. Last year, our students exceeded, met or made progress on 19 of the 23 academic goals outlined in our strategic plan.

Maintaining this progress is going to be very difficult moving forward, given the massive budget cuts proposed for next fiscal year. Our budget recommendations to the Board are based on a potential $35.6 million or 9.6 percent cut in state funding.

We also had to plan for the loss of federal stimulus dollars while trying to limit the impact on our hard-working employees. Finally, we wanted to restrict any request to the Board of County Commissioners for an increase in local funding.

As such, we are only asking for the funding needed to maintain our current services to students and schools, and to restore our capital outlay funds (used for facility maintenance and repairs) to previous levels.

Because we do not yet know how deep the state cuts will go, we developed the proposed budget reductions and redirections in three tiers. This allows us to scale the cuts up or down as needed.

Tier One:  The Board and administration wisely banked all but $1 million in federal EduJobs funding (part of the federal stimulus funding GCS received) in anticipation of the current fiscal crisis. We will use this funding first. Tier One Total = $13.3 million

Tier Two: Central Office reductions and redirections = $6.4 million; energy savings = $1 million; multi-tier transportation system = $700,000; 31% of Weighted Student Formula (WSF) funding withheld from 2010-11 = $3.7 million; = $50% of WSF funding withheld for 2011-12 = $5.9 million; Increase class size by .25 students in grades K-12 = $1.7 million. Tier Two Total = $19.4 million.

Tier Three: Two-day pay reduction for all GCS employees who earn $35,000 or more. Tier Three would only be taken only as a last resort, if state budget cuts meet or exceed 9.6 percent or more. Tier Three Total: $2.9 million.

 We need everyone to join us in saying, “enough is enough.” It’s time to fund our schools first. To make sure your voice is heard, please consider attending one or more of the following public hearings:

We will also post regular updates on the GCS website, www.gcsnc.com, and on GCSTV-2.