General Questions
April 30, 2010
I have noticed that the budget to educate our children has been cut for at least the last three consecutive years. We put the educational lottery in place and still the school budget gets cut. How is this still happening? The teachers of durham county work hard with circumstances that at times are deplorable and now we once again tell them your hard work is rewarded with a pay decrease or benefit cut. How is this?
Thanks for your email. The DPS budget is funded by local, state and federal allocations. You may be interested in the following reports about the state budget. You also may want to share your concerns with legislators and county commissioners. Their contact information is on the DPS Budget Website. Regarding the education lottery just 2 percent of the State Public School Fund comes from lottery dollars and DPS gets just $4.8 million annually from the lottery for construction projects.
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/newsroom/news/2009-10/20100414-01
http://ncasa.net/associations/2410/files/NCASA_letter_budget_concerns_4-22-2010.pdf
April 29, 2010
Are funds from property taxes allocated to the county as a whole (combined in one big pot for all Durham County schools) or used only for the schools in my attendance zone?
County property taxes are collected by the County and put into the county budget and then the Durham Board of County Commission members determine what portion of these funds go to Durham Public Schools and to other county agencies. Durham Public Schools Board of Education does not collect taxes.
April 12, 2010
I saw this on the news and on the web as a way to say (save) money. If we change the preset font on our computers to Century Gothic we can save money in ink jet and toner cost. The link is below.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100406/ap_on_hi_te/us_tec_money_saving_fonts
Many thanks for passing along this tip.
Please clarify how Federal Stimulus funds can be used. Specifically, can Federal Stimulus funds be used to fund regular classroom teaching positions?
Please see the item on the Budget Website—Federal Stimulus Funds and specifically the PPT that is bookmarked below regarding how DPS is using federal stimulus funds.
http://www.dpsnc.net/images/pdf/aara/Federal-ARRA-Funds-jb-Oct-2009-PP.pdf
March 31, 2010
Has any thought been given to cutting a day or two out of each month to save gas, electricity, etc.? For example, since we need 180 days OR a certain number of instructional hours per year, would it be worthwhile to consider extending the day in some cases by a few minutes and being out perhaps one or two Fridays or Mondays a month? Thoughts?
Thanks for your suggestion. The NC General Assembly would have to change the school calendar law in order for DPS to shorten the school year as the law now requires 180 instructional days AND 1,000 hours of instruction. School calendar flexibility is likely one of the areas that school administrators and school boards continue to advocate for and we expect that to continue in the coming legislative session. You can find contact information for legislators on the DPS Budget Website.
March 30, 2010
Will the charter schools lose money or have to give money back like we do?
Charter schools are subject to the same requirements for state funding as Local Education Agencies. NC-DPI can answer questions related to how the state budget will impact charter schools. Charter schools county funds are based on total $$ per-pupil provided by the County. Should the County reduce the local county appropriation per-pupil the charter schools funding would likewise be reduced.
Will their teachers be asked to have a pay reduction or furlough since they are paid by the state?
Charter schools manage their own budgets and we do not have information about how they will handle having less money for 2010-11.
How are charter schools funded, mainly building new school facilities? Does the state pay or is it private donations?
Charter schools currently do not receive funds from the state or county related to capital. They seek other revenue sources for school facilities and capital project.
March 29, 2010
I suggest that parents of students that would like to participate in driver's education be charged a fee. There are private driving schools that charge as much as $500.00 per student, therefore if there was a fee of $100 to $150 per student, this would generate funds for DPS. Parents should be given the option of making payment in full, or making installments until paid in full before their student can attend class. Please take this suggestion into consideration.
Thanks for your suggestion. We recently learned that the State has cut $72,980 in driver education funds so we will be looking at alternate ways of handling some of these expenses.
March 25, 2010
Why is Wake County Schools only cutting $20 million and DPS is cutting $20 million? Wake is much larger than DPS.
Wake County Schools’ current budget projections for FY 2010-11 do not include any additional state reductions or any reductions to their local county appropriation. DPS's projections currently include a 3% additional state reduction and the County Manager has asked DPS to anticipate a 3% reduction to our local county appropriation. Wake County Schools is also able to appropriate $6.2 million from their fund balance to help offset their budget requirements. DPS has no available fund balance to appropriate. If Wake schools were anticipating similar budget circumstances as DPS they would be factoring in an additional $39.8 million of potential budget reductions over the $20 million currently being projected ($24.3 state, $9.3 local, and $6.2 fund balance) or a total budget reduction of about $60 million.
March 24, 2010
What about the new federal stimulus money that was announced this week for NC—will DPS get any of that?
The announcement of additional federal stimulus funds for North Carolina will not provide new money for schools. The additional $373 million of federal stimulus funds for the State of North Carolina was already factored by the General Assembly into the 2nd year of the biennial budget. The General Assembly was counting on the state qualifying for those additional funds and they are currently in our planning allotment figures for the Federal Stabilization funding we received to offset the cut to Non-Instructional Support funding in the State Public School Fund. That cut for DPS is over $8 million. If the state had not received this additional allocation, DPS would have had more cuts than have already been planned.
March 18, 2010
Can all of our schools centralize the resources that we have so that we are not buying items that already exist elsewhere. We should have an inventory of all items purchased even items bought with school discretionary funds. Teachers from all the school can share the resources since the funds are purchased with DPS money. If the items were paid with PTSA funds then that is another story. No school should have several copies of an item that sometimes does not get used. We must share what we have with our colleagues in the building as well as within the district. Also, we do not have to buy something when there is an equivalent either online or at the disposal of another teacher. I have found a lot of freebies through GOOGLE and BING that have helped drive the education in my classroom without paying a dime.
We currently share textbooks among schools based on that same premise; textbooks belong to the district and unused textbooks should be available to any student who needs them. However, it sounds like you are proposing that before schools purchase any instructional resources from any source that they are able to somehow “query” the district to see if there are any unused resources that could be shared. This would mean that each school needs to check and see what extra resources they have and make a list of them and that list would be shared with other schools. We can check to see if other districts have a manageable way of doing this but it sounds like this would take resources to manage that are not available.
What about federal stimulus money that was supposed to help save jobs? How is DPS using that money?
DPS is receiving $23.3 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to be spent by September 2011. The funds have primarily been used to retain 267 positions that would have had to be cut otherwise. DPS has used 70 percent of its federal stimulus money, leaving just 30 percent for the 2010-11 school year.
Who determines how reductions to the budget will be made?
The Durham Public Schools Budget Advisory Committee met in January and February to discuss funding priorities for the coming school year. They presented a list of recommendations to the Interim Superintendent. In addition, principals talked with their staff members and submitted suggestions. Central Services department leaders also were asked to recommend cuts. From this input, the Interim Superintendent is working with finance officials to develop a proposed budget. This information will be provided to Board of Education members for their consideration. The reductions largely depend upon how much state and local money DPS receives so it may be June or July before the complete budget picture is known.
What about lottery funds—doesn’t DPS get lottery funds for schools?
It is a little known fact that just 2 percent of the State Public School Fund comes from lottery dollars and DPS gets just $4.8 million annually for construction projects that must be approved by the county and the state before the project can proceed.
Are all expenses being carefully considered and strictly controlled at a time when individual schools are being asked to return monies they had received for supporting classroom activities? (As an example, the purchase & engraving of personal electronic items for certain staff members which occurred last year after the school returned their unspent funds.)
Yes, purchases are being scrutinized. We believe you are referring to the iPod Touch devices that were purchased for a pilot program last year with three schools and the Staff Development Center. They were engraved with Durham Public Schools and a fixed asset control number. These are small items and easy to lose or misplace.
How aggressive is DPS in applying for federal and foundation funds for programs?
DPS has a grants coordinator who writes and coordinates grants and helps connect teachers with grant opportunities. In the last two years DPS has received approximately $3 million in grants. We also applied for some that were not funded. We are waiting to hear back from two grant proposals now and are reviewing the federal stimulus grants to ensure that we apply for all grants for which we are eligible.
Why can’t DPS just dip into its rainy day or savings account—surely there is one, correct?
Due to unexpected state and local funding cuts during the 2008-09 school year, DPS has just over $800,000 in what is termed an “unappropriated” fund balance. The CPA independent auditor who reviews DPS finance records recommends the district have $16 million in unappropriated fund balance. Other districts of similar size have much larger fund balances and can dip into those funds when times are tight.
