Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Superintendent’s Plan for Student Success?
The Plan for Student Success describes a three-year budget plan. It provides an in-depth and detailed business description of financial needs based on growing student enrollment and the school system’s four strategic directives:
- Rededicating the focus on learning and teaching;
- Retaining, recruiting and training high quality employees;
- Developing and implementing systems and structures to support schools, ensure accountability and engage the community;
- Expanding fiscal accountability.
How is the Plan for Student Success developed?
Work begins in the fall and continues up to the adoption of the budget resolution in June by the Wake County Board of Education. Finalization of the Superintendent’s Plan for Student Success culminates a dynamic process involving input from many groups.
Work on the Plan began with re-purposing existing resources and identifying unmet needs for the projected 140,000 students who are expected next year. Schools and central services departments developed strategic plans and requested budget needs to support the plans.
From there, the superintendent’s strategy team developed the Superintendent’s Plan for Student Success by prioritizing all requests based on the mission, strategic directives, and the delicate balance between instructional and supporting service needs.
What does the school system hope to accomplish through the Plan for Student Success?
The 2008-09 Plan for Student Success identifies additional funding needs that address growth and other changes in our operating environment that impact student learning. The Plan also begins the process of addressing higher standards, moving academic progress upward off its plateau, and eliminating achievement gaps. As presented, the Plan represents the school system’s assessment of the financial resources necessary to ensure the strength of the Wake County Public School System, one of the economic engines of our county. The result WCPSS is working toward is academic achievement for all students. WCPSS schools must prepare all students for a global and technological future difficult to imagine. The WCPSS vision is not for “most” students, it is for “every” student.
Where does WCPSS receive its funding?
The school system receives 61 percent of its funding from the state, 33 percent from local government and six percent from the federal government.
How will growth impact the Plan for Student Success?
The largest increase in funding is in response to growth. The plan includes $16.4 million to open three new elementary schools and meet the needs of an additional 6,400 students. The new schools opening for 2008-09 are Mills Park Elementary, Laurel Park Elementary and Sycamore Creek Elementary.
Where does WCPSS spend most of the money it budgets?
Approximately 82 percent of the school system’s total funding pays for employee salaries and benefits, and approximately 95 percent of the school system’s positions are school-based.
What steps has WCPSS taken to control or reduce spending?
The school system has already made fiscal and administrative improvements such as streamlining the Central Services divisions, strengthening internal financial controls, integrating community feedback through superintendent’s summits, and supporting School Improvement Planning through the area superintendents’ offices. The school board has adopted a new fund balance policy that limits the use of undesignated reserves while maintaining sufficient funding for unanticipated needs.
How can I share my budget priorities with the school system?
The Board of Education will hold a public hearing March 18 as part of the regularly scheduled meeting of the school board. Each speaker has three minutes to relay their thoughts about the budget to the board.
After Superintendent Burns presents the Plan for Student Success, what happens next?
The superintendent presented his Plan for Student Success to the Board of Education on March 4. The Board of Education will hold a public hearing on the Plan for Student Success on March 18 and will hold work sessions to discuss it. The board will vote on the plan in late April making it the Board of Education’s Plan for Student Success. It will be delivered to the Wake County Board of Commissioners by May 15. The budget is adopted following action by the Board of Commissioners. The commissioners must adopt a budget resolution, which includes the county appropriation for the school system, by June 30. If full funding of the Plan for Student Success is not approved, the school board must adjust the spending plan accordingly.
What is the difference between the operating budget and the capital improvement budget?
The Operating Budget pays for day-to-day costs of running the school system, like salaries, supplies, maintenance, transportation, and utilities. This is called the current expense portion of the operating budget. It is paid for with a combination of state, county, and federal tax dollars, as well as with grants, fees, interest earned, and fines and forfeitures. The operating budget also pays some capital costs such as vehicle and equipment replacement and leases and relocation of mobile units.
The Capital Improvements Budget is also called the building program. Building program dollars pay for design and construction of new schools, expansion of existing schools, and major renovation and replacement of older facilities to meet educational standards. The costs are paid primarily by bonds, where voters authorize the state or county to borrow money. The bonds are paid over a number of years through taxes.
How does state budgeting affect the Plan for Student Success?
Due to our phenomenal student enrollment growth, the state budget is expected to increase by six percent in 2008-09. Ninety-three percent of state funding is spent on salaries and employee benefits. We anticipate 6,457.50 net months of employment based on growth in student projections.
The state portion of this budget was based upon applying 2007-08 formulas to 2008-09 projected student membership. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) released planning allotments on February 13, 2008, after this budget had been prepared. Budget adjustments required due to action of the General Assembly will be incorporated after the state budget is finalized. The impact of these items will be recorded in the school system’s budget and will be reported to the board in the first quarter of 2008-09.
What steps does WCPSS take to manage resources in an efficient and effective manner?
WCPSS financial management has been confirmed by numerous audits and studies by independent citizen groups. WCPSS continually seek ways to make the best use of every dollar spent. WCPSS uses a purchasing card throughout the system to decrease the time between order and delivery by teachers and other staff, as well as to reduce purchase orders and accounts payable transactions. WCPSS uses a system wide e-mail system to reduce paper transactions and improve timeliness of communication. WCPSS has eliminated option pay and required direct deposit for employee pay. This reduced cost, saved processing time, and significantly reduced salary audit exceptions from NCDPI. The chief business officer, finance officer, and senior director of budget meet with each division and the principals quarterly to review financial issues, spending and collection patterns, and to discuss risks. A $1.0 million reduction remains in the base budget to be recouped from a 60-day freeze of all central services vacancies.
Why is WCPSS asking for increased funding?
To determine the amount of funding to request from Wake County, the Leadership Team members submitted business cases for fluctuations in human and financial resources needed to support the strategic plans for the next three years. They determined which costs and savings could occur from state, federal, and categorical resources first. We determined how much fund balance could be reinvested in the budget based on the fund balance board policy. The difference became new dollars that would be requested from the county. The business cases identify costs and savings by funding source. As a result of the process, there is a net increase in funding the superintendent recommends the Board of Education requests from the Wake County Commissioners. This increase of $35 million in funding is driven by a number of items including:
- Anticipated legislated salary increases for base pay the General Assembly may pass must also be applied to locally funded staff.
- Supplementary pay schedules for certified staff are currently established as a percent of base pay, therefore there is an increase in local cost for supplementary pay for all state and locally funded staff based on applying the percent supplements to the anticipated increases in base pay.
- Growth-related costs, some of which are due to student membership increases; others are due to the addition of new schools, increases in numbers of employees, increases in square footage and acreage, and increases in mileage.
- System wide costs that fluctuate independent of growth such as fiscal accountability costs, rate increases, facility leases, safety and security costs, data integrity costs, and fixed asset replacement and capital budget items not included in the building program.
- Commitments for costs or savings that have been approved by the Board of Education in a formal meeting, but for which the resource adjustments have not yet occurred.
- Requests for new resources to make current formulas more aggressive, to make salary schedules more competitive, or to add funding for new items to support the strategic plan of the school system.
- Savings are deducted for budget reductions and removal of one-time costs from the previous year.