Lenoir County Schools Budget Battle

Arthur Mondale/Eyewitness News 9
Published: May 14, 2008
Updated: May 14, 2008

Public education isn't free.

In fact one school district is saying it's down right expensive.

With rising teacher salaries, fuel costs and retirement packages--summer break isn't necessarily a vacation.

Even though the Lenoir County School System has $500,000 in the bank they say they need a lot more than they got last year because they had to borrow from savings.

"And now we had to dip into our savings, our fund balance by $3.1-million dollars over the last three years and we can’t continue to do that...so we had to say....we need your help,” said Terry L. Cline, Superintendent of Lenoir County Schools.

The district overspent in the 2007 fiscal year. Now the district is working at maximizing the efficiency of it's operations. One example is the merging of two of the districts schools into one future site.

"Public education is very expensive,” said Ken Shaw, Financial Director for Lenoir County Schools. “We pay for the similar costs that Joe public pays."

Some costs like the price of diesel fuel have increased by 50% within the last 6-months.

It cost $250,000 last year to heat schools--this school year it's expected to nearly double.

Then there's the rising costs of technology, food and teacher salaries.

Now county commissioners are hearing the sum of $12-million to run the schools.

"We know how much we've got and we'll spend it accordingly,” said Paul H. Taylor Jr., Chairman, Lenoir County Commissioners.

"Are we in debt no,” Shaw said. “Was there over spending, our revenues did not match our expenditures so we were $2-million dollars--we spent more than we brought in."

But superintendent Cline adds, “We're going to have vacant positions. And when you have vacant positions you've got to fill them…When you don't get the money you always plan for the worst case."

Dr. Cline adds the districts construction costs are still on schedule.

Currently there are three new schools being built.

The largest, Contentnea-Savannah is scheduled to open in December of 2008.