Commissioners, school board to meet on funding, class sizes
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 20, 2018 5:50 AM
The state's low-wealth funding formula and a new law dealing with classroom size limits will be discussed Wednesday during a joint meeting of Wayne County commissioners and the Wayne County Board of Education.
Also on the agenda is a presentation by Kevin Leonard, executive director of the N.C. Association of County Commissioners, on the history of school funding in the state.
Members of the county's legislative delegation have been invited.
The meeting, which is open to the public, will start with lunch for the boards at noon in the 4-H room at the Maxwell Center, 3114 Wayne Memorial Drive.
During the commissioners' January planning retreat, Commissioner Joe Gurley said he thinks low-wealth funding is the more-immediate of the two issues for the county.
The board pressed both points to state Sen. Don Davis, who attended a portion of that meeting.
The county will lose nearly $2 million annually in low-wealth funding because its tax rate does not meet the threshold to receive the money.
Local legislators were able to get the $2 million for 2017-18 into the current state budget.
However, they could not secure the funding for 2018-19, which means the county will have to absorb a $2 million annual shortfall starting this year.
Commissioners are championing a long-term fix by trying to convince legislators to change wording in state law that exempts counties with military bases and a student population of at least 23,000 from the low-wealth formula.
Currently that applies only to Cumberland County, home of Fort Bragg, and Onslow County, home of Camp Lejeune.
Commissioners' goal is to reduce the student population threshold to 17,000 students instead of 23,000 so that Wayne County also would be exempt from the low-wealth formula.
Initially, the legislature passed a law setting limits on the number of students per certified teacher in a classroom. According to the school system, the county would need to accommodate 500 students because of that.
It also has been estimated that adding the 50 new teachers that would be needed, the cost of a new school and its operating cost would be about $4.1 million for the county during the first year.
There were concerns as well that the legislation would cost the county enrichment classes such as arts and music, as well as physical education.
However, legislators last week passed House Bill 90 that will phase in the classroom cap over four years.
It also creates an allotment for enhancement teachers and appropriates funds for the state pre-K program.