Okay, per my post yesterday about textbooks in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools I’ve contacted the school system and am waiting to hear back from them. In the meantime I’ve decided to do some research and on the school system’s website I found the Proposed Budget for 08-09. From their line item explanations I found this:
23. 2007-08 was the one year out of five
when state textbook funds are almost sufficient to purchase all new
textbooks needed. Social Studies adoptions occur in 2008-09, and to
purchase new books for each student will require increases of
$1,372,337.24. We centrally budget for curriculum and
instruction supplies, materials, small equipment, etc, for system-wide
instructional needs, including basic non-consumable supplies for new
classrooms to house the 555 projected new students, calculators
required for use with math textbooks, replenishment of larger cost
non-consumables such as maps and globes, plus a new $50,000 commitment
in 2008-09 to help bring the supplies and small equipment in
kindergarten classrooms up to the standards of newer school
classrooms. The overall increase needed is $283,130.
Item 23 is interesting because it says that due to Social Studies adoptions in order to purchase new books for each student will require $1,372,337 in addition to whatever was appropriated before. I need to clarify what "Social Studies adoptions" means, and are they implying that in subject areas that aren’t "adopted" they don’t need each student to have books?
I can’t find an actual budget on the website so I’ve gone to the county website to find their budget. The main budget page is here, and here’s a link to the PDF version of the breakout for the county’s education segment of the budget. In a nutshell here’s what I found:
- The school system asked for just under $122 million and the county appropriated just under $111 million from the general fund.
- Of that $111 million the school spending is broken down into these major categories:
- Instructional Programs – just under $71 million
- Support services – just over $31 million
- Charter Contingency – about $6.5 million
- Capital Program – $2.4 million
- They also break out their personnel spending and it’s a little confusing because you go from looking at millions or thousands of dollars to non-financial numbers. I’m assuming that the numbers represent thousands of dollars. Whatever, here’s the change in spending on their people from 07-08 to 08-09 for all funds:
- Administrative staff – 275.9 to 285.5 (+9.6)
- Instructional staff – 4,267.4 to 4,047.8 (-219.6)
- Clerical staff – 2,042.1 to 1,941.5 (-100.6)
- Hourly staff – 766.1 to 660.0 (-106.1)
So go figure, the only increase in payroll expenditures came in administration. Huh.
I’m still trying to find out if there’s a break out on the website of how the school system spends their dollars on such things as books, computers, etc. I can’t find it yet and I may have to get it directly from the school system, but once I do get it I’ll cover it here.
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Good Luck! I’ve been trying to get a detailed look all the pieces of the pie and it cannot be done under the current leadership. Walter Marshall our county commissioner has asked & asked & asked for years. The response is always the same from WSFCS #1 in charge. We’ll get back to you, but they never do. If you remember a few years ago they were asking for a new bond and Mr. Marshall was grilling them hard for more details. They came back the next week and still would not provide what was asked for and the grilling began again. They had a problem providing detailed information because their year goes August to July. When Mr. Marshall said he could divide by 12 they got smart and packed up their toys and went home for a year to let the trail cool down. They may give bits and pieces but never, never the whole picture & never at once for the same year. Who do you think you are asking that kind of information? Don’t you realize your digging into something that is not for our eyes? We may get a 100,000-foot overview but don’t you dare ask for details. We can’t handle that kind of information. Just pay your taxes and don’t question an educators accounting. Everything is just fine. Trust them, you do with you kids.
Thanks for the comment SHOE. I haven’t found details yet, but I’ve found basic numbers at places like ncpublicschools.org. Still, nothing specific.
Have you tried a FOIA request? If so how have they justified not releasing the data? Isn’t it public record?
Yes I have requested information from our LEA under the FOIA. What I asked for and what I got was either incomplete or out of date or incorrect or not disclosed. The figures I requested were different than what the state had. When I met with the State officials in Raleigh we researched further and found that the LEA had updated their report to the state after they sent me the information I requested under the FOIA. So as I stated before, Good Luck getting detailed & accurate information. Unless your really good at games like “Find the Pea under the cup” and you understand that there is no limit to how many cups there are, your not going to find the pea. If you do find the pea you won’t be able to have the pod & vine. I wish I had a more positive experience to offer but this is how our LEA operates based on what I have experienced. Maybe you’ll have better luck. I hope so! I hope you are able to prove me wrong. I’ll be watching to see what you find out. I wimped out and got tired of playing the game, so I’m depleting my 401K and sending my last K-12 kid to private school. Textbooks run me $400-$600 per year depending on what classes my kid takes. Personally, I’d be happy to pay that much more a year in taxes to have an open, accountable and safe public school system.
Well SHOE I wouldn’t call it wimping out. I was once paid to file FOIA requests on behalf of the company I worked for and even as a day job it was very frustrating. I’m hoping I can get some traction without my hair turning gray.
I don’t really want to resort to FOIA requests and was hoping I could find info in the public record, but so far it’s just general numbers. From your experience it sounds like it might be a rough go.
I’m a big proponent of efforts like the Sunshine Project and truly believe that transparency is vital to having a government that the people can trust. Since education is such a huge part of local and state spending I think it is absolutely incumbent on our local leaders to be totally open about this, and honestly the final budget should be posted online for everyone to see.