Speaking of voting, do you know whether you're eligible to vote tomorrow in  one of the five Wake County school board races?

As noted in today's article by Thomas Goldsmith, the Wake County Board of Commissioners turned down the request from the Wake County Board of Elections earlier this year to spend $120,000 to send postcards to voters letting them know their voting districts had changed.

It's an issue considering a number of voters changed school board districts as a result of new maps adopted this year.

To no one's surprise, Wake County Manager David Cooke is recommending giving the school system $313.5 million for the 2011-12 fiscal year.

County commissioners had indicated they'd be willing to give the school system the same amount it had gotten the past two years. That intention was reflected today in the $951.5 million budget proposed by Cooke.

As noted in today's online article by Thomas Goldsmith, the county is also allowing the school system the choice whether to continue spending $900,000 on 4-H and Ready to Learn programs or convert that funding to other uses.

UPDATE

The only way the school system can use the money for its own purposes is if it agreed to make what would be an unpopular decision to eliminate 4-H and Ready to Learn services that county Human Services now provides to schools.

Sanderson High School and the Sanderson Athletic Club are set to induct the first class of the newly established Sanderson Athletics Hall of Fame.  The Sanderson Class of 2011 will be the forty-third class of students to graduate from the school that opened for the 1968-69 school year.  Although the Spartans have a rich tradition of excellence in athletics, they haven’t established a Hall of Fame until now.
 
The Sanderson Athletics Hall of Fame Class of 2011 includes eight athletes, one coach, one team, one booster, two families, and one “happening” - the famous “Streak” of 103 consecutive soccer matches without a loss.

It's not looking good that Wake County commissioners will increase school funding as they're casting their eyes on the district's undesignated fund balance.

During today's retreat, County Manager David Cooke told commissioners that the school board's undesignated fund balance, a.k.a. rainy day fund, stands at $25.2 million. Commissioners say they'll know where to look if asked to increase funding for the 2011-2012 school year.

"If we wanted to find additional money for the schools, the quickest place to go would be to their fund balance, which is our money anyway," said board of commissioners chairman Paul Coble.

The Wake County school board is getting some good news from County Manager David Cooke.

In the face of deep cuts recommended to other parts of the county budget for the coming fiscal year, Cooke proposed today that the school system get $313.5 million. It's the same amount that the school system got last year and is exactly what the school board is officially asking for this time.

Now it's up to the county commissioners to see if they agree with Cooke's proposal or want to give more or less money to the school system. Historically, the commissioners don't give less in school funding than what the manager proposes.

Ann Denlinger and budget issues will be on the agenda of today's joint meeting of the Wake County school board and county commissioners.

Denlinger, president of the Wake Education Partnership, will give an abbreviated version of the January presentation about Knightdale High School she had made to the Knightdale 100. It had so impressed County Commissioner Joe Bryan that he wants both boards to hear it.

The school board will then discuss the budget it adopted Tuesday, especially the request for $313.5 million from commissioners. It's the same amount as was requested last year.

UPDATE

School board chairman Ron Margiotta opened today's joint meeting by saying that he recognizes that the commissioners' resolution can be in conflict with the school board's new assignment plans. He said they'll meet to discuss it later but need to focus today on the agenda topics.

The county budget will be the big topic of discussion at today's joint meeting of the school board and county commissioners.

County Manager David Cooke will explain his budget, which would cut spending, cut jobs, freeze pay raises and keep the property tax rate flat. He'll also mention why he's recommending giving the school board $3.3 million less than the $316.8 million it has requested.

The meeting will start at 9 a.m. in the ground floor conference room of the Wake County Office Building, 337 S. Salisbury Street in Raleigh. It's open to the public.

County Manager David Cooke isn't recommending giving the school system the full amount it has requested.

Cooke proposed today that county commissioners give around $313 million in school funding. The school board is asking for $316.8 million.

You can see this as a cut, or as Cooke views it, a gain for the schools. If you factor in the $5.7 million that the school board returned to the county late last year, Cooke is proposing an increase over the $310.5 million baseline budget number.

School officials have been focusing on how their request is only slightly over the $316.2 million that commissioners agreed to provide last year.

The school board will try to sell its request for $316.9 million to cash-strapped county commissioners today.

The school system's budget request will dominate the discussion at today's joint meeting of both boards. While the school system gets most of its funding from the state, it wants to get as much as it can from the county to avoid deeper cuts.

Depending on how you look at it, the school system is either asking for a $700,000 increase from the county or a $6.4 million bump. That's because the school board agreed in December to give back $5.7 million to help the county deal with this year's fiscal shortfall.

It looks like the school system will be more conservative in how much money it requests from county commissioners in the new budget.

As noted in today's article, school leaders say they'd be content with getting just a $6.6 million increase from commissioners this year. That's far less than the $54.7 million increase that the school board unsuccessfully sought last year.

But also as noted in the article, Harold Webb, chairman of the board of commissioners, said it might not be possible to even give $6.6 million more. Doing so would require either cutting some other part of the budget or increasing property taxes.