The question of whether the Wake County school board should return to the county around $15 million in excess fund balance is likely to be a big issue during the budget process next year.

In a nutshell, the school system's undesignated fund balance, colloquially called its rainy day fund, has grown so much in the past few years that board policy dictates that about $15 million be returned to county commissioners.

But with next year's budget being tight, is that the right call? Also, it would take a two-thirds majority to waive policy to keep the $15 million so would a bi-partisan coalition agree to that decision?

SEE UPDATE AT END OF POST, WHICH NOW INCLUDES LINK TO TUESDAY DISCUSSION ON RICK & DONNA MARTINEZ SHOW ON WPTF

The Wake County school board has racked up $67,113.71 so far in legal bills defending the district against the various complaints filed or supported by the state NAACP.

According to page 1 and 2 of this handout presented during last week's budget work session, Wake has compiled $154,298.61 in legal bills dealing with the Open Meetings lawsuit, the federal civil rights complaint and the AdvancED review.

School officials are hoping insurance will pick up $87,176.90 but Wake is rapidly reaching its insurance cap. This means the district would pick up a larger share of any new legal expenses.

The most anticipated discussion topic at last week's Wake County school board economically disadvantaged student performance task force meeting was the Fund 6 balances for individual schools.

Each school maintains a Fund 6 account for the revenues they generate. The amounts vary widely among the schools and are used to pay for a variety of things.

Questions about Enloe High School having the most Fund 6 revenue this past fiscal year of any school in the district at $649,325.95 took up a good chunk of the discussion. Click here for the handouts.

Wake County school board members insist they're being serious when they float ideas such as charging fees for students to play sports, ride the school bus or go off campus for lunch.

As noted in today's article, school board members at Wednesday's finance committee meeting said it's time to talk about the unthinkable to help deal with the budget crunch. Board members who were present Wednesday were preparing for the public backlash.

“These are clearly things – riding the bus and athletics – we expect to be free and provided by our school system,” said school board member Keith Sutton, chairman of the finance committee. “But in a tight time such as is this, is this something worthy of considering? Is this something that the public is willing to pay to save teachers’ jobs?”

UPDATE

Tedesco is also suggesting looking at establishing a formal foundation to get contributions. It's an idea that was also discussed earlier this year by school board member Keith Sutton, chairman of the finance committee.

One of the questions that's come up is why the school board didn't dip into its rainy day fund on Monday to help clear the $39.3 million deficit.

The answer, according to school administrators, is that it would have been against board policy. The school board adopted a policy in December which says, among other things, it will not use more than 50 percent of its July 1 undesignated operating fund balance to provide funding for the following year's annual budget.

The undesignated operating fund balance as of July 1 was $15,333,685. The board had already agreed in its budget request to use $7.5 million from the fund balance to balance the budget, leaving only around $166,000 left to use.