CMS Budget On The Chopping Block
The Board of Education learned Tuesday afternoon that Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools would need to fork over $6.3 million from its current-year budget to help close an estimated $20-million shortfall in the county’s current-year budget.
And that was the good news, compared to what followed: Board members were told that County Manager Harry Jones would be pitching a 6.5 percent reduction in county funding next year for CMS, which translates to $80 million in overall cuts. That bombshell left the school board in an awkward position at its budget workshop session: Before talking with Jones yesterday, Superintendent Peter Gorman had planned on unveiling five budget scenarios, with the worst case calling for up to $63 million in cuts.
“We’re not prepared to discuss a 6.5 percent reduction,” Gorman said, “because up until yesterday we didn’t have any signals from the county that it would be that much.”
Faced with the prospect of having to cut some $17 million more than even their worst-case scenario had previously projected, a majority of the school board bit the bullet and gave Gorman a green light to begin crafting a budget for next year that called for at least $63 million in cuts, with the tacit acceptance that even more cuts would likely be floating on the near horizon.
Gorman said direction from the board was needed so he could begin giving principals some sense of their likely staffing allotments, allowing them to start making plans for next year’s schedules and courses.
Budget cuts in the $63 million range, Gorman said, would include 841 employee positions, with at least 580 of those being teachers. Other cuts would see athletic programs sidelined for middle schools and magnet bus routes kicked to the curb, while class sizes would grow for some of the district’s most challenged schools.
“I don’t like any of it,” said board member Joe White. “But unless somebody comes up with something miraculous, I’ll have to throw my hand up for it.”
White was joined by board members Tim Morgan, Trent Merchant, Rhonda Lennon, and board chair Eric Davis in giving Gorman the nod to continue with budget plans working off at least $63 million in cuts.
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