Bob Luebke argues that the Wake County school system should cut more Central Services positions before making further budget cuts in schools.

In a blog post today for the conservative Civitas Institute, Luebke is skeptical of the school administration's claims that schools now need to bear the brunt of the cut. Staff is proposing that schools bear 80 percent of the new state cut in education funding.

"Can anyone honestly say teaching staff should be cut before additional layoffs to Facilities Planning, Auxiliary Services or Growth and Planning?," Luebke writes. "If the purpose of Wake County Schools is to educate students, shouldn’t the budget reflect those priorities?"

If you're one of the people who've wondered if a four-day work week would be the way to deal with school budget cuts in Wake County, it's not considered a viable option yet.

Chief Business Officer David Neter laid out eight different options Wednesday they said had been suggested by people, including school board members, for coping with $20 million in state cuts. Those eight options were all rejected for various reasons.

Neter said it would take a change in state law to allow Wake to move to a four-day work week. State law requires schools to have both 180 days and 1,000 hours of instruction.

Borrowing a phrase from Dirty Harry, is the Wake County school system feeling lucky now?

As noted in today's article, school leaders aren't thrilled that they're facing $20 million in state cuts for the coming fiscal year. But they're at least relieved that, for now, they're not looking at teacher layoffs.

"The cuts are pretty severe but I'm glad that Wake County still has some flexibility," said Keith Sutton, chairman of the school board's finance committee.

The budget news is getting even worse for the Wake County school system.

Chief Business Officer David Neter told school board members today to expect a 3 percent state funding cut for this fall that would cost the district $20 million. He said this cut would directly impact the classroom.

Neter said plans on where the cuts would be made will be presented to the finance committee next week.

The Wake County school budget proposal presented today by staff is a bleak one.

The $1.2 billion operating budget for the 2010-11 fiscal year includes a $20 million cut in the Central Services spending. That means 83 current full-time employees will be laid off and 23.5 vacant full-time positions will be eliminated.

SEE END OF POST FOR UPDATE ON INCREASES IN SCHOOL MEAL PRICES

Ann Denlinger, president of the Wake Education Partnership, is speaking out about Del Burns' resignation as Wake County schools superintendent and the upcoming search for his replacement.

Denlinger was interviewed by Chris Fitzsimon, executive director of the liberal N.C. Policy Watch, for this Sunday's broadcast of "News and Views." According to N.C. Policy Watch's Progressive Pulse blog, Denlinger says it’s clear to her that Burns “fell on his sword” to take a stand against those who hope to end the school system’s socioeconomic diversity policy.

You can watch online a preview of her interview where she talks about why Wake should pick an educator to be superintendent over a businessman.

If the Wake County school board does remove Del Burns earlier than June 30, someone needs to step in soon as interim superintendent.

As noted in Saturday's article, there's no obvious choice like a deputy superintendent to step in because Burns eliminated that position in 2006 when he converted it to the new slot of chief business officer.

While it's not a guarantee, three potential internal choices for interim superintendent could be Chief Area Superintendent Danny Barnes, Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens and Chief Business Officer David Neter. Of the trio, only Neter is a non-educator.

As many as 100 current school district employees will be laid off this year because of the poor economy, Wake County school board members learned today.

Chief Business Officer David Neter said plans are being developed to lay off 75 to 100 central services employees. Central Services covers everything not based at schools, such as the maintenance department, technology department, human resources and communications.

Wake's reluctance to extensively use federal stimulus money to save existing jobs is drawing fire from the N.C. Association of Educators and Gov. Beverly Perdue.

As noted in today's article, Wake school leaders complained that the state's discretionary cuts are not really so discretionary after all, leading to larger class sizes and fewer teaching positions this fall. They also are saying they're reluctant to rely too much on stimulus money that's scheduled to go away after two years.

But NCAE and Perdue, which both backed the budget deal and argued that stimulus money could be a lifesaver for school jobs, aren't happy with Wake's response.

UPDATED END OF POST TO INCLUDE LINKS TO PERDUE'S BUDGET ORDER, WHERE WAKE IS MAKING THE CUTS AND HOW IT'S SPENDING THE STIMULUS MONEY.

Wake school leaders are bashing the state for forcing them and other school districts to make unpopular budget cuts such as raising class sizes and reducing teacher assistant positions.

No new positions were eliminated today as they were already anticipated in the budget. But today's board vote makes the cuts official.

At issue is $225 million in discretionary K-12 state education cuts. Wake's share of those discretionary cuts is $21.7 million.

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