County budget OK’d; schools still facing cuts

Rob Morris | May 3, 2011

School officials were left to look for as much as $1.3 million in additional cuts after the Dare Board of Commissioners approved a $99.6 million countywide budget Monday.

Commissioners declined to give the school system more money, saying they had fulfilled their obligation for local education funding by keeping spending at current levels.

County Manager Bobby Outten proposed covering $327,895 of the school system’s shortfall. But commissioners chose instead to look for ways to save by consolidating county and school services such as groundskeeping and contract work.

Those savings would go into a special account for the school system.

Before the vote, Ben Sproul, vice chairman and incoming chairman of the Board of Education, made an appeal for budget relief, saying that “to cut any deeper, we would not be able to spare current personnel.”

“And if we go any deeper, the erosion of our quality of service would accelerate dramatically,” he said.

Outten said the $327,895 represented the portion of the shortfall that could be considered a county expense. It included increases in retirement and health insurance for locally funded teaching positions, fuel and utilities.

“Dare County, again, is not cutting any spending, we’re not cutting any funding for education at all in the proposed budget,” Outten said. “Any cuts, any revenue problems that they have on their end are all coming from either the state or the federal level.”

Outten’s proposal was to take the money from the county’s undesignated balance, or savings account. He said the county could still stay well below the 3 percent it had been using from savings in recent years.

Commissioners instead directed the county and schools finance officers to look into the idea of consolidating services.

In his presentation, Sproul said that the school system had initially faced a budget gap of $3.28 million. The shortfall came from cuts in state money, loss of federal stimulus funds and obligatory new costs, he said.

The Board of Education, Sproul said, was able to prune that to $1.3 million with additional cuts and $750,000 in stimulus money it had set aside last year.

For fiscal year 2011-2012, the total school budget is $50.5 million. Of that, $18.87 million was budgeted by the county, the same as the current fiscal year, for which education had received a $758,000 increase.

Sproul said after the meeting that school officials would look for still more cuts. He said he did not want the prospect of job losses to be hanging over teachers but was not sure how much more savings could come from attrition.

The new budget includes no tax increases. The property tax rate was increased 2 cents per $100 to 28 cents in the current budget. The budget year starts July 1.

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See what people are saying:

ekim says:

Is 50 mill for all the schools in dare? If so thats alot$$$$$

on May 4, 2011 @ 8:03 am

Ray M. says:

$1 million of it is to fund all those photos and plaques we see in the newspapers every week of the school administators who are trying to blow their own horns..

on May 4, 2011 @ 6:18 pm

Stephen says:

Ekim, obviously not enough to cover your grammer and punctuation.

on May 4, 2011 @ 6:31 pm

BeachLivin' says:

The children are the ones that suffer. Really Dare County, you couldnt cut anywhere else? I find THAT hard to believe. The county officials need to sit down and really pour over the numbers and pin-point where the money is really being wasted and see who is using the most of the resources. I say step up requirements for county services in order to limit the abuse of our county money. I think as a community we need to put an end to the waste, and we must demand better for our children and our county. 50 mill is not alot when it is split between 11 schools. We all see the waste every day, and those in charge need to be held accountable.

on May 4, 2011 @ 7:56 pm

Mico says:

compared to what?

on May 5, 2011 @ 7:13 am

ekim says:

Stephen is that all you got! I bet we could take 3 local businesmen or women and find alot of cuts, like get rid of the FREE breakfast and lunch, and make these sorry parents PAY! the U.S. has spent over 40 billion on education LOOK IT UP! We have not gotten our moneys worth!CUT THE FAT!

on May 6, 2011 @ 7:58 am

Concerned says:

You want to solve the budget issues in Dare County stop providing county services to illegals. It really is that simple

on May 7, 2011 @ 7:24 am

Allan 2 says:

I’m no bleading hearted lib, ekim, but feeding hungry kids is a necessity. First of all, how do you “make” sorry parents pay? A better thought is to end bus service. I’m gonna guess that transportation is one of the top three expenses of almost any school system.

on May 8, 2011 @ 7:43 am

Mattie Six Sigma says:

More money doesn’t automatically equate to a better education, regardless of the bleeding hearts who think so. We have great buildings in Dare County and great teachers, too, but there is plenty of waste that can be eliminated. Waste is a matter of interpretation. Some of us would say anything that distracts from providing a solid core education (reading, writing, arithmetic) is wasteful. Are the kids learning to respect each other and the administration? Are they learning how to balance a checkbook? Do they know the difference between fiscal responsibility and reaching into the pockets of hard-working taxpayers? Can they think for themselves or are they only capable of reciting the dogma of liberal political correctness? Charter schools will provide the choice we need to best educate our kids based on qualities that have nothing to do with money. Kids first. Accolades, plaques and photo ops dead last. IMHO.

on May 9, 2011 @ 12:35 pm

Mattie Six Sigma says:

Kudos to our Dare County Commissioners for not raising taxes. They will get a lot of heat from many worhty non-profits needing a hand-out. It’s a tough job. But, now is not the time to hit up taxpayers who are barely scraping by in this tragic economy. Pray for our small businesses who are struggling. They are the economic backbone of this country.

on May 9, 2011 @ 12:43 pm

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