SNOW HILL – School system officials say they’re in the process of providing Worcester County government with budget details.
The Worcester County Commissioners last week told Worcester County Public Schools leadership that they wanted more details regarding the school system’s $131 million budget. Todd Ferrante, president of the Worcester County Board of Education, said this week school system officials met with county leadership and were in the process of providing any information requested. Ferrante said he’s optimistic that the budget process will move forward in a positive manner.
“I am hopeful they’ll be able to fund our request,” he said.
Last week, the commissioners told school system officials they’d asked multiple times for detailed budget information and were still waiting for it. At the board of education meeting later that afternoon, Superintendent Lou Taylor and school board members expressed concerns about the commissioners micromanaging the budget, which they say is 90% fixed charges. They agreed, however, that Taylor and Chief Financial Officer Vince Tolbert should meet with county administration to answer their questions.
Ferrante said this week that meeting had taken place and the county would be receiving the requested information.
Bertino agreed that the meeting appeared to have been productive.
“We haven’t yet received the information but are confident it’s being worked on,” he said.
Bertino acknowledged that this year’s budget process did represent a transition from the way things have been done in the past.
“This is the first time we’re requesting information as detailed as we’re asking for right now,” he said. “One of the realities is this — Worcester County is facing a number of financial mandates from the state. A lot of unfunded mandates. The cost of doing business is growing. We’re experiencing inflationary pressures. I think we have a responsibility to know exactly where our tax dollars are going.”
For years, the school system has provided county administration with a budget summary rather than the detailed line-by-line budget provided by most county departments. Ferrante indicated that had nothing to do with not wanting to be transparent, as Tolbert was willing to provide any information requested by county officials.
“We’ve been very transparent,” Ferrante said, adding that the school system was also consistently categorized as one of the best in the state. “We’ve had a very successful school system in Worcester County. We rank up there as far as the 24 other districts in a lot of categories in the top. I hope we’ll be able to continue to do that. What we’ve been doing has been working. If you look at the scores and where we rank, it’s indisputable.”
Bertino said the county’s interest in the budget was simply an effort to see where tax dollars were being spent. He said the summary information was not detailed enough that officials could see trends. He said that when citizens paid property taxes in Worcester County, most of that money was being directed toward education.
“When more than half of the county’s budget is going to the board of education we should see where that money is going,” he said.
Bertino said the county had no interest in micromanaging the school system’s spending.
“The board of education, it’s their job to review and scrutinize and make changes to the board of education budget,” he said.
Bertino said he believes this year’s transition into a more detailed budget discussion will prove helpful for the county and the school system going forward. He added that the relationship between the two entities was as strong as ever.
“We’re dealing with a sensitive issue apparently, but we’ll get through this,” he said. “I didn’t expect this to be so difficult, but we’ll get through this as we’ve gotten through other challenging issues in the past.”
The proposed $131 million school system budget is funded primarily by the commissioners, with about 80% coming from the county and not quite 20% coming from the state. The school system’s proposed budget is about $4.1 million higher than that of the current fiscal year. The bulk of that increase is tied to pay increases, as teachers will get a step increase as well as a 4% cost-of-living adjustment. They actually already got .75% of that adjustment this month.
Ferrante said that was part of table negotiations with the Worcester County Teachers Association.
“They agreed to take less provided we could provide .75% April 1,” he said, adding that it equated to very little per paycheck for teachers. “When you look at where pay is and what costs are, the raise doesn’t keep up with that.”
The remainder of the teachers’ pay increase is built into the proposed budget. When asked what the school system would do if the budget was not approved as presented, Ferrante said officials would find the money for the teachers elsewhere.
“If they don’t give us enough money—I don’t like to think about it,” he said. “We’ll have to figure out how to do what we can do and do with less.”
He said maybe the spending for services to students or professional development could be reduced.
“We have to find it somewhere,” he said.
