The Guilford County Board of Commissioners and members of the Guilford County Board of Education are going to hold a joint meeting on Wednesday, April 30 and boy is there a lot to talk about.
The Joint Capital/Facilities Committee – a body consisting of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners and the Guilford County Board of Education – has scheduled the April 30 meeting for 4 p.m. in the John McAdoo Conference Room on the third floor of the former Truist Bank Building at 201 W. Market St. in Greensboro.
That building is now county-owned.
The main purpose of the committee is to oversee the expenditure of the $2 billion in school construction money being raised by two bond referendums in recent years, which, it turns out, thanks to inflation, will not go as far as was hoped when the bonds were approved by voters.
Another issue that’s on the front burner of both county leaders and school leaders is how much money Guilford County government should give the school system in the coming fiscal 2025-2026 county budget, which will be adopted by the Board of Commissioners in June.
Guilford County already gives about 45 percent of its budget to Guilford County Schools each year – and this is going to be a very difficult budget for the commissioners to craft because the current board has spent itself into a hole, and school officials are asking for a great deal of additional money this year.
The Board of Commissioners has been remarkably generous to the school system in recent years but the county can’t give additional money it doesn’t have, and the commissioners have already committed to a budget with no tax increase this year.
The latest budget proposed by Guilford County Schools totals nearly $1 billion for the 2025-2026 school year, and the school board is asking Guilford County government for an additional $44 million this coming fiscal year. That’s money the county simply doesn’t have to spare. Raising that money would require the board to raise the current tax rate by about 7 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
Much of that $44 million would go to pay increases for school teachers and other staff.
“We are a people-driven organization, and without them, we are without purpose or product,” Superintendent Whitney Oakley stated while presenting her budget recommendation for the 2025-2026 school year.
The proposed new school budget, which would be funded by county, state and federal dollars, asks those funding sources for a total of over $947 million in order to pay for the following:
- A $10 million increase in local teacher supplements to help recruit and retain high-quality teachers.
- $15.3 million allocated to increase the pay scale for non-certified employees.
- $3 million for enhanced security measures, including middle and high school scanners, emergency radios and security cameras.
- Capital investments of $10.8 million including $7.9 million for “emergency” HVAC replacements, $952,000 for building repairs, $1.4 million for equipment and vehicles and $504,000 for roof repairs.
When the new school budget proposal was announced and the request for $44 million in new funding was made to the Board of Commissioners, Guilford County Schools’ superintendent made her case.
“The purpose of our work as a public school district is to invest in people. Educating our students is in fact an investment in their future and the future of Guilford County,” Oakley said. “For far too long we have struggled behind the rest of our competitors, both in the public and private sectors, to pay our employees fairly and appropriately for the work that they do. And yet, as one of the largest employers in Guilford County, a pay increase for our employees would be felt in every other sector of the local economy.”
Several county commissioners, including Chairman of the Board Skip Alston, have already said privately and publicly that Guilford County Schools will not get anywhere near the additional $44 million requested, given the host of other obligations the county has right now.
However, the current board is super-friendly to the schools – the board contains two former school board members, a teacher, a school volunteer and a chairman who always considers education a top priority. So, the board will do what it can for the schools, but that may not be a whole lot this year given the tight budget hole the commissioners have spent themselves into by being immensely generous to the schools, county departments, and county employees in recent years.
It’s important to remember that the $44 million is just the additional money for school operations (not including construction cost paid for by the bond funds.) In all, the total request of the schools to the county for operating costs comes to $314 million for the period that runs from July 1, 2025, to June 30, 2026.
The commissioners are now taking public input and holding a series of budget workshops to try to determine how much money to give the schools for operations this year.
In May, County Manager Mike Halford will bring the commissioners his recommended budget, and the Board of Commissioners will hold a public hearing on the manager’s proposal on Thursday, June 5.
The commissioners are scheduled to adopt a fiscal 2025-2026 county budget on Thursday, June 18.
These days, in addition to funding school operations, the Board of Commissioners must worry about that giant wall of school bond debt that it will be paying off over the next two decades.
Having $2 billion for school construction sounds like it would go a pretty long way; however, many formerly planned projects are being cut because that money, in the current economy, is drying up faster than people anticipated.
In fact, Chairman Alston told the Rhino Times recently that there would likely be a need for another large school bond referendum – of perhaps another billion dollars – within the next several years, in order to make all those promised projects a reality.
Alstom also said that in 2026 the commissioners would ask county voters to approve a quarter-cent sales tax increase to help get more money to the school system.
The debt for the school bonds is starting to come due in a big way and, in addition to giving hundreds of millions of school operations each year, the board is also having to stash away more than $50 million every year to commit to paying off that looming massive school bond debt that’s being used to build new schools and other capital projects.
The Federal Reserve and many other financial experts are predicting increasing inflation brought on by newly implemented federal tariffs, which will mean construction materials will cost more.
As if that’s not bad enough, current interest rates have been creeping up, which means that Guilford County is going to end up paying hundreds of millions more in interest on the bonds than the county anticipated when the bonds passed. At the time county voters approved the two bond referendums, interest rates were at near historic lows.
The joint April 30 meeting of commissioners and school board members is open to the public and can also be viewed via Zoom platform on a computer, tablet or smartphone by visiting https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1617398309, completing the webinar registration, selecting the option to join from the confirmation email prior to the start of the meeting and choosing one of the audio options.
They’ve been “pleading” for a long time. No matter how much money they extort from the taxpayer, it is never enough. Money does not mean you will get a good education. Indoctrination is what our children are getting now, you want to pay for any of that?
Get rid of half the assistant principals and counselors, don’t pay coaches, make students pay for any sports they participate in, will save millions
make colleges pay the salaries of their counselor ‘recruiters’. too many non-teaching ‘staff’ in our public school bureaucracy ? & get out of the ‘meal @ school’ business by < hours @ school
No more; doing a terrible job as is!!!!!
I saw nothing about improving test scores and better education. Is that not what schools are supposed to do? It is all for show and paying off friends and keeping votes of certain people!!!
As William points out, terminate the multiple assistants and other non conributors the school system hires. Pouring more dollars into the budget has not solved anything and the year end stats prove it each year. Kids can’t read or do simple math. This scam is getting old.
* When I was growing up in England and teachers or ‘educators” would appear on television, they would always talk about education issues as you would expect. So such & such school had done very well academically this year! Or a new Latin course of schooling was being introduced, warily, with great hopes. Or Russian was being dropped in a school since no-one wanted it (I remember that). Regardless, it was always about education.
I was shocked when I came to this beautiful state because I soon realised that all “educators” ever talk about is money.
MONEY, MONEY, MONEY… that is what they want, that is what they crave, that is what they demand.
This tells you what is the REAL objective of the Government School Monopoly. Along with its abysmal results.
It ain’t educating our children.
education outcomes are tied to quality of ‘out of school’ experiences . fix that.
No, educational outcomes are tried to the quality of the education provided – obviously.
the problem child is living in an impoverished environment – intellectual & material . . . but not genetically – that would be racist ! after the ‘education’ they lack ‘agency’ ($) & the ‘real’ educators: roll models . . . like you.
We already have seen that money spent on public education makes no positive effect on student outcomes, only administrative salaries. Even teachers don’t benefit a lot from funding increases. Maybe cutting administration budgets/salaries by 50% would have a positive effect on student grades. Let teachers develop their own curriculum with parents input.
let’s be cynical: spend on schools or spend on jails ? school – a form of incarceration ? some days my ‘attitude’ said YES ! is ‘motherhood’ a form of incarceration ? freedom gained/ lost or . . . irrelevant/situational ? i used cold hard $$ to motivate my kids to get GREAT grades. let’s do this in our schools for teacher & student with rigorous testing & copious material/ cultural motivation.
So, our great country spends more dollars per student than any country on earth., yet ranks lower than most first world countries in Education. Also, student attendance is dropping in Guilford County Schools.
Can someone from the school board please help me understand why more money is the answer?
considering that > $$ is not the answer, is the ‘method’ of $$ exchange between EDU consumer & EDU provider too cryptic, convoluted & ‘back room’ ? nothin like handing teacher a big smoked ham around christmas ! or another quilt, or canned food or used but clean clothing or . . .
Can someone begin to show the public some data???
How are grades on standardized test this year compared to 5 years ago snd 10 years ago?
How many students does the GCS have now vs 5 years ago snd 10 years ago?
What is the student teach ratio now vs 5 years ago and 10 years ago?
What is the student administrator ratio now vs 5 years ago snd 10 years ago.
What is the budget this year vs 5 years ago snd 10 years ago.
What efforts are in this budget to cut cost vs increases?
I’m sure a good accountant could come up with many more data points that we could analyze to see if the GCS deserves any increase as it would seem that the powers to be in our school system think the tax payer has an endless supply of money.
This data is available on GCS website. Grok will probably summarize and cite if you ask it to.
Enrollment:
2015 – 71K
2020 – 69K
2025 – 67K
Test Scores (only available back to 2018 that I could find). Proficiency:
2018 – reading 55.5%. Could not find math
2020 – reading 47%. Could not find math
2023-24 (most recent available) – reading 42% elementary, 39% middle school, 61% high school. math – 46% elementary, 36% middle school, 31% high school.
But hey, they give close to 90% a diploma.
What abysmal and deterioration performance. That’s what you get with the Government Schools monopoly – as they demand ever increasing largesse for their incompetence.
We could give the school board every dollar we have and it wouldn’t be enough for them. Their word of the week, the month and the year is MORE!
Rush Limbaugh had the right idea. Go through the school and ask each person there “how do you directly impact the education of the children?
Immediately fire those that can’t/won’t/stutter/mutter/or groan with their answer.
Commenters on RT have written about the property tax money that is wasted on Guilford County schools. Nothing has changed nor will it change until a truthteller steps forth and admits what needs to be done to fix schools so that students learn the basics for navigating life such as reading, comprehension, and at least math, if not algebra. Children should learn how to think critically, not indoctrination. Kids should be taught how words are formed to extrapolate their meaning so when they see a new word they may be able to decipher the word’s meaning. What should not be done is spend more and more money on schools that are failing. The Guilford County Commissioners who have been involved in education should hang their head ashamed that they were/are part of the failing school system. And those voters who voted for the bond money should have voter remorse so that they don’t make that same mistake again. There should be a forensic audit of the financial records of the Guilford County schools. It is certainly appropriate since the County Commissioners are not qualified to use property taxpayers’ money to fund schools. And the School Board is rife with unqualified members who just want an elected political office, any political office, for show.
TERMLIMITS,
Very well thought out and said. Unfortunately we have ‘leaders’, rightly referred to by Alan as the Board of Commissars, that have shown, IMO, that they don’t care. When was the last time you heard from any of the Republican/Conservatives on the Board expressing their stand on these things?
I’ve decided to go back and look at the voting records of the Board and see just how many times there have been dissenting votes by them.
I am throwing down the gauntlet I challenge them here and now to speak out on this, with publicly recorded proof they are standing for those that voted them in regardless of whether they won or not.
GCS District Details (2023-2024 school year; Fiscal data from 2021-2022)
Total Students: 67,832
Teacher (FTE) Distribution
Total: 4,634.51
Other Staff (FTE) Distribution
Total: 4,757.65
W Foakley,
Please correct me if I’m wrong but according to your numbers we have more support staff then we do actual teacher,
As Alan said, go thru and ask them how they DIRECTLY impact the teaching of students. Someone said said give the teachers more pay…well, I now know where to find the money and have some left over. Maybe even LOWER taxes.
These comments are disgusting. I invite any one of you to volunteer one day in a school building. Also, teachers need more money b/c most of the really good teachers have left due to the pay – they can make more with less stress on an ambulance or in a bar. What we have left are “teachers” that are not specialists in the field they teach, some aren’t even licensed yet and our legislature wants to make it easier for more non licensed teachers to be in our schools. You get what you pay for. That’s why scores are suffering and kids are leaving.
Sandy – Chicago schools made the same claims and all that happened when they got even more money was for pay to skyrocket along with the percentage of illiterate students. Some of us have volunteered. It’s why we decided never to send our kids to GCS schools. Money is not the problem. Allocation of funds is. More non-teachers than teachers is expensive. Sweeping violence under the rug is also an issue, along with rehiring staff who left previously for allegations of sexual abuse. Letting kids of a certain look or identity harass other students without consequence isn’t a great learning environment, but it’s what we have at GCS.
“Balanced literacy” never worked to teach kids to read, yet decades after knowing this, GCS clings to it. Eureka math turns simple math processes into a giant art project, but GCS insist on using it despite only 31% of students in GCS high schools showing grade level math proficiency – these are the kids whom Eureka was used to teach the “basics” in elementary and middle.
GCS gets significantly more money per student than the majority of private schools in the area, and 100% of local charter schools – all whom have far superior outcomes even adjusted for home life and socioeconomic level. GCS also gets more per student for students with special needs. While I understand there are extreme cases, they are very few and funding is immaterial to the overall budget.
Whenever GCS gets more money, they hire more paper pushers. When they get funds for renovations, they blow it. It cost GCS more than double to accomplish any construction or maintenance project as it does surrounding counties like Forsyth. Enrollment is declining despite increases in both funding and the school aged children population. GCS has become mostly a jobs program for mediocre adults.
If GCS showed any interest in improved curriculum and less focus on weird ideological stuff, next to failed curriculums, you might not see all these negative comments. Functional curriculum is not more expensive – it ends up being cheaper because it doesn’t come with a need for tons of consultants and extra teacher trainings. I voted for all past bonds. I’m not voting for any more funding for the schools until or unless they show some interest in educating kids and embracing teaching methods that actually work.
Well written, Guilfordmom. I especially liked “GCS has become mostly a jobs program for mediocre adults.” That comment is true for government jobs in general, and at taxpayer expense.
I disagree with you, Sandy. Guilford County student scores have been abysmal for a long, long time. It was a death knell for the schools when Greensboro and Guilford County schools merged. Skip Alston keeps throwing money at a failing school system. Property owners’ tax money let’s be clear. It would be interesting to learn the number of homeowners compared to renters in Guilford County, and the number of Guilford County students in each group. Therein lies the rub.
Guilfordmom and TERMLIMITS
HEAR, HEAR.
PREACH ON SISTER AND BROTHER!!
We have term limits at the ballot box. The voter participation is dismal; that is why we have our current govt.
both groups feel the burden of property taxes that fund schools . . . ? consider school ‘vouchers’ for one but not the other ? i rubbed & got a genie WHAT A PEST !! don’t rub the wrong thing in public here in there in there inn ?
consider privatizing the teaching profession with individual & group tutoring – in person & online. eliminate all those buildings & use the savings toward better housing for student & teacher ?
The comments are not disgusting. The comments are actual opinions based on experience. The school system, school board, county government are disgusting and laughable at best. Voters continue their repeated vote sequence and the same year end results stay the same or worse. I wonder why?
Its called district voting. Skip Alston cannot lose an election because his people (male and female) are the voters. Do you think Alston could win at large vote?
“School Leaders Are Pleading For Money The County Doesn’t Have”…yet the County Commissars will give them what they want. It’s called mutual…satisfaction (a polite term for what it really is)