GREENSBORO — Guilford County Schools students have had to walk farther to their bus stops and may see larger class sizes in the coming school year.
District officials also have cut central office positions, scaled back spending on educator training and delayed pay raises to balance rising expenses with diminishing revenue.
So far, the classroom has been shielded from efforts to absorb funding cuts, said Angie Henry, the district’s chief financial officer.
That safeguard may not last.
“We’re struggling after several years of flat funding and having to cover cost increases in other areas,” Henry said. “We’ve worked hard for it not to impact the classroom, and I can’t promise that that will not be the case for (2013-14).”
Recently released figures from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate classrooms nationwide already have taken a direct hit from years of repeated budget cuts.
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Across the country, year-to-year per-pupil spending dropped in public schools in 2011, according to the Census Bureau. That marked the first drop in funding since 1977, when the bureau began regularly tracking the nation’s per-pupil spending.
In North Carolina, per-pupil spending reached a four-year high of $8,587 in 2009 but dropped slightly in 2010 and 2011, according to census figures.
In Guilford County, the district’s per-pupil spending fell from about $8,698 to $8,539 in fiscal 2010 and dipped again in fiscal 2011, mirroring the national trend. Although spending rose again in 2011-12, according to district figures, officials are proposing increasing class sizes in the 2013-14 school year as a way to save money.
Also to save money, GCS officials scrapped plans for a camp to boost reading skills for up to 1,500 second-graders this summer. The camp was an effort to get ahead of a law requiring such camps for third-graders.
About 34 positions likely will be cut for the 2013-14 school year, Henry said.
If the funding picture doesn’t change, the district’s budget will be revisited to find ways to pay for increases in employee benefits such as retirement, Henry said. Since state funding follows students, increased enrollment at local charter schools would also feed the need for additional cuts elsewhere in the district’s budget.
“Those dollars will have to be found somewhere,” Henry said.
Per-pupil spending covers the costs of educators, facilities — everything tied to the total expenses for children in the schools, said Elizabeth Foster, president of the Guilford County Association of Educators.
And with cuts in state funding, as well as commissioners’ proposed flat funding of Guilford County Schools, the impact has been incredible, Foster said.
“The state has cut, for example, textbook funding, and we locally have not had a new textbook adoption in a long, long, long, long time,” she said.
With the staffing cuts, “not only do you have more children — who may also include children with disabilities — in the classroom, you’ve also reduced the number of folks who are able to assist in classroom instruction,” Foster said.
“We’re all asked to do more with less, all of us,” Foster said of educators.
At the same time, North Carolina schools and most other states are implementing Common Core, a shared set of standards intended to emphasize critical thinking and problem-solving skills over rote memorization. Student achievement on standardized tests also is being factored into teacher evaluations and decisions about pay increases.
Despite those challenges, local schools “are doing better than ever,” Foster said, noting Guilford County Schools’ high graduation rates and academic achievement.
“But when you continue to pile on the workload and take away money, which could provide maybe an extra teacher in the school or an extra teacher assistant in the school, it’s incredibly difficult and it’s incredibly stressful, and a lot of teachers are choosing to leave the profession,” she said.
Tighter funding should encourage smarter spending, said Lissa Harris, co-founder of the education advocacy group Parents Supporting Parents. There should be a thorough assessment of individual schools’ needs so officials “can stop spending money on frivolous programs,” Harris said.
To not do those assessments is irresponsible, she said. There should also be greater accountability, Harris said. It’s not enough to simply boost school funding, she said.
Contact Marquita Brown at 373-7002, and follow @mbrownk12 on Twitter.
