April 23, 2009

Public education loses a friend

Few people will leave as deep an imprint on the public schools of Wake County as Vernon Malone.

Malone, a state senator at the time of his death Saturday, played a key role in the merger of the former Raleigh city schools and the former county system. He then served as chairman of the new Wake County Board of Education in 1976.

Malone remained on the school board until 1984 when he was elected to the Wake County Board of Commissioners. On that board, where he also served as chairman, he helped shape the budgets that made the public schools a key part of the county’s unprecedented growth.

Malone was elected to the state Senate in 2002 where he continued to work in education, co-chairing the Senate's higher education committee and education budget subcommittee. He was also on the Board of Trustees of Wake Education Partnership.

Throughout his public service, he never wavered in his support of an integrated school system. He believed diverse schools, as they later came to be called, were the key to personal opportunities for students and community growth for all.

“I felt passionate about our efforts then and I feel just as passionate today,” Malone said during a community meeting in February. “It’s still the right thing to do.”

Malone’s wife, the former Susan Caldwell, died two years ago. She and Malone had three children: Rod, Barry and LaVerne. He was 77.

Glimmers of hope can’t be budgeted

Despite suggestions that the current recession has found a bottom, it’s clear from discussions between Wake school leaders and county commissioners that the “green shoots of recovery” won’t be rooted in the schools next year.

During a meeting of the two boards last week, county officials said current projections for 2009-2010 suggest a gap of about $35 million between expenses and revenues. That’s near the upper end of what the county originally projected.

It’s also virtually certain state lawmakers won’t have a budget approved before year-round schools open the first week of July. That has forced Superintendent Del Burns to anticipate a state cut of about 5 percent while he hopes for something smaller.

Current budget proposals in the General Assembly are shaping up as a tug of war between K-12 education in the House and the University of North Carolina system in the Senate. At the county level, the tug of war is between K-12 and other basic services.

 “We haven’t seen that glimmer of hope yet that people are talking about,” said Deputy  County Manager Joe Durham. “We can only spend what we have.”

While the economy no longer appears to be in a free fall, the county isn’t expecting much growth during the next fiscal year, Durham said. That means at least 100 positions will be cut from the county’s workforce of about 3,900 and there will be no pay increases. Any job losses in the school system would be in addition to county totals.

The school board has requested $316 million from the county for 2009-2010, the same as it was scheduled to receive this year before budget cuts began. Enrollment, however, is projected to grow by roughly 2,300 students next year.

Stimulus money to be tightly targeted

The amount of money Wake County schools will receive from the $789 billion stimulus package approved by Congress in February is becoming a bit clearer, but it’s also obvious the new funds won’t be pouring into schools anytime soon.

School leaders expect to receive about $40 million during the next two years, but that money must be spent on special education programs and programs that serve primarily poor students. The terms of the legislation also require the money not replace existing funding. That means cuts would be needed when the money runs out or other funds would eventually be needed to keep paying for the increased level of services.

The county also expects to receive about $17 million in “zero interest bonds” that can be used to pay for school construction. By comparison, it costs about $20 million to build an elementary school. But it isn’t clear how the bonds should be sold or who would buy them.

That kind of detail – or more specifically a lack of such detail – is the biggest hurdle in getting the money distributed, said Matt Bosse, who is tracking details of the stimulus bill for Wake County.

“People want to know how much are we getting and when is it coming,” Bosse told school board members. “But we just don’t have that kind of detail.”

State lawmakers are expected to use federal stimulus money to fill some holes in the education budget as well as the budgets of other state agencies. But that process, as noted earlier, also won’t be setting any records for speed.

Noteworthy

… Wake County school board members have agreed to postpone plans requiring all students to complete a graduation project to earn a diploma next year. The decision followed a vote by the State Board of Education earlier this month to delay the requirement statewide. Wake school board members intend to require the project for those who are sophomores this year regardless of the state’s final decision.

… More than 150 people attended a book signing this week by former Wake County Superintendent Bob Bridges. The book offers a look at “the first 75 years” of Bridges’ life from forming an identity in poor, rural and segregated North Carolina to becoming a respected educator responsible for running a large integrated school district. A summary can be found here. It is on sale at Quail Ridge Books in Raleigh and the St. Augustine’s University bookstore.

… State educators have offered a plan to provide extensive oversight of Halifax County schools following comments by Wake Superior Court Judge Howard Manning that he might require a takeover of the struggling district. Aside from the sweeping nature of the response, the plan is notable because Manning described the problems as in Halifax as “academic genocide” – the same terms he used for several high schools in Charlotte where concentrations of poverty within some schools have left Mecklenburg County struggling to improve student test scores.