Revised Budget Gives Carrboro 33% More Funding for Next Year

[Amy Ryan]

In response to earlier questions about the inequities evident in the
proposed high school budgets for 2009-10, the school district has
revisited their figures and released corrected figures. According to
their budget office, a combination of factors (neglecting to add in
salaries for new senior-class teachers, spreadsheet errors, etc.) was
responsible for the inequities we called their attention to last week.

The new budget shows a gain for Carrboro High of $1.45 million for
next year over the first budget posted by the district, to a total of
$5.84 million. New budget figures show Chapel Hill High with $53,000
less funding, for a total of $10.8 million, and East with $331,000
less funding, for a total of $10.6 million.

Per student funding proposed for next year is $6,939 for Carrboro,
$7,937 for Chapel Hill High, and $7,197 for East. Much of this
discrepancy is accounted for by the higher salary levels for teachers
and staff with longer service at Chapel Hill High and East. Earlier
sizable and troubling discrepancies in items such as staff
development, instructional supplies, textbooks, and field trips have
been resolved, and funding across the board seems equitable. See the
Revised 2009-10 High School Budget Summary posted in the Files section
for more details.

While I’m pleased that the board and administration have acted quickly
to correct the budgets, I’m still troubled that the district could
have been off in their budget calculations by 33% (v. 0.5% for Chapel
Hill High and 3% for East). If this was a “math error,” it was one
of awesome proportions. As the spreadsheet demonstrates, the revised
budgets show changes of varying amounts in nearly all budget lines at
each high school. The budgets were certainly refigured carefully, and
obviously multiple factors were considered when amounts were
allocated.

I’m looking forward to attending tonight’s school board meeting and
hearing the administration’s and board’s comments on what happened.
But the good news is that the Carrboro budget, as it stands today, is
now in line with the budgets of our sister schools.