Teachers could lose local pay supplements if commissioners act on possible cut in local school funding.

By FULLER ROYAL
Staff Writer

Monday night, the Columbus County commissioners openly discussed the idea of cutting nearly $300,000 from its proposed $1.7 million in local school funding or about one cent of the current Columbus County tax rate.

Should that occur, the North Carolina General Assembly could end up withholding $4.2 million in low-wealth funds from the Whiteville City and Columbus County schools.

It nearly happened four years ago. The commissioners had cut $133,000 from the local school budget for 2001-02 and had kept the same cut for 2002-03.

In June of 2003, the state’s office of budget management contacted both local school systems informing them that because of those cuts, the systems were going to lose $2.1 million in low-wealth funds.

The state said that unless $266,000 was re-appropriated, the schools would lose all of their low wealth funds for the following year.

Commissioners Bill Memory, Sammie Jacobs and Lynwood Norris were commissioners at the time. They voted to reverse the cuts to the schools and the funds came through.

Terry Dudney, the county school’s finance director, said that the state uses two formulas to determine if schools are eligible for low-wealth funds.

School systems can remain eligible if the county’s tax rate is higher than the average tax rate across the state.

Dudney said that currently, the state average for county tax rates is below Columbus County’s.
He said that if the county’s tax rate is higher than the state’s, the state will also look at the actual funding amount.

If that local funding effort is too far below the average per pupil funding across the state, then the low-wealth money could be in jeopardy.
Dudney said the county would not learn of future eligibility until next summer – after the fact.

If low-wealth funding is lost, the teachers in both systems would lose their pay supplements. Dozens of teachers and clerical staff would lose their jobs.

Many classrooms would go without computers, software and instructional supplies.

Jay Stanley, the director of finance for the city schools, said that a $300,000 cut would be bad enough, but a $4.1 million loss would be a severe blow to the schools.

The city schools have already been notified to expect $1.1 million in low-wealth funding this year. The county schools are looking for $3.1 million.

Low-wealth funding was initiated in 1991 by the General Assembly in an attempt to help poorer counties catch up with their wealthier counterparts.

Only last year was the measure fully funded for the first time.

Low-wealth funding is used to fill in the gaps left by state and federal funding and is the only way that both local systems can offer teachers supplements, which are also among the lowest in the state.

The Whiteville City Schools ranks 74th in the state for teacher supplements at 5 percent. The Columbus County Schools are 90th with 3.5 percent.