It looks, like for now, the Wake County school board will sign off on staff's recommendation to use $28.8 million out of the $33.9 million in the rainy-day fund.

As noted in today's article, staff made two pitches for using most of the money in the undesignated fund balance. One, staff said it's needed to avoid layoffs. Two, staff said they can replenish much of the fund balance for one more year in 2013.

"Long term, for the health of the school system, we do need to get away from using a significant amount of the fund balance toward recurring expenditures," Chief Business Officer David Neter told the school board. "That is not fiscally ideal. But again as I shared with you when I presented the budget a couple of weeks ago, we’re in survival mode at this point."

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