Could classroom crowding and course offerings get worse in Wake next year?

As noted in today's article, that's something that Wake Supt. Del Burns is hoping to avoid with the $20 million in Central Services cuts that he wans to make for next fiscal year. But he's not ruling out the possibility that more classroom cuts could be needed for next school year.

"We're trying to preserve the services we now have," Burns said.

Wake Supt. Del Burns announced plans today to cut $20 million from the Central Services budget for the upcoming fiscal year

The cuts still have to be identified but would come from areas not based at schools. He's hoping these cuts will reduce the amount that could be cut from school spending.

Burns said he called for the cuts now because Wake is facing $17 million in both additional costs and cuts in funding for next year that have to be addressed.

Click here for the district's press release.

UPDATE

Click here for the online story. 

It looks we've got some ominous budget news coming Thursday from Superintendent Del Burns.

The school district sent out a press release this afternoon that Burns will hold a media briefing on Thursday to make an "announcement" on the 2010-11 fiscal year budget. The press release doesn't give details but it's not likely going to be good news.

State revenue collections are down, fueling fears that cuts will be ordered.

Kevin Hill, chairman of the school board, said the briefing was arranged by staff and not the board. While he didn't know what Burns will say, he expects him to announce what preparations are being made for the next fiscal year.

We're getting a look today at how the budget woes are impacting class sizes.

Staff will ask the school board to vote today on approving K-3 class-size waivers for 66 of Wake's 102 elementary schools. It affects 329 classes.

Because of the state revenue shortfall, Wake told principals to only fill 95 percent of their positions this year. School leaders warned that class sizes would go up.

Wake County school officials announced today that the school system’s official enrollment grew by 1,893 students from last year’s total.

School officials say the enrollment on the 20th-day of classes was 139,599 students, compared to 137,706 students at that same time last year. School districts use the 20th-day figures to report an official enrollment to the state for funding purposes.

The school district based the budget on having 140,012 students. Whether county commissioners ask for money back from the school system for those 413 students is debatable.

One of the charges raised during the school board campaign is that abandoning the diversity policy will require a sharp increase in taxes to pay for a system of neighborhood schools such as what's used in Charlotte.

Well, the funding gap this year between the Wake and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school systems is a lot smaller than normal because of the recession. The previously large gap is now down to $3.9 million.

UPDATE: CORRECTED SIZE OF CURRENT GAP

A not so cheerful year for traditional-calendar schools will start tomorrow.

As noted in today's article, students are returning to schools where class sizes will be up and some elective courses have been dropped. Some teachers are still out of a job and supply budgets have been sliced.

"Our parents understand where we are with this economy," said Chip Mack, the new principal of Davis Drive Elementary School.

Wake Superintendent Del Burns is mounting another defense of the school district's decision not to rely too much on federal stimulus dollars.

In this week's journal, Burns says the stimulus dollars are "not a magical solution that will make everything like it was." This comes as outside groups, including NCAE and Gov. Perdue, are saying that Wake should use the stimulus dollars more to save teacher jobs.

Burns stresses that the stimulus dollars are set to expire in two years.

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.

Click here for the online story.

Just like I did for Chapel Hill-Carrboro last week, I'm posting some of the state budget reduction numbers for Orange County Schools. These were just released at last night's school board meeting. It's purely informational - the board won't vote on a finalized budget plan until its Sept. 8 meeting.

Click "Read More" to get a rundown of some of the major highlights: