It looks like the Wake County school board's budget could go back to getting greater scrutiny from the board of commissioners.
As noted in an article today in the Raleigh Public Record, Tony Gurley, chairman of the board of commissioners, wants to bring back the "purpose and function" budgeting requirements for the school system. Gurley says that school board chairman Ron Margiotta agrees with the idea, which would be a major change from how prior boards viewed the requirement.
Under purpose and function, the school system budgeted the amount it received from the county into several broad categories. The school system had to get the approval of commissioners if it changed any of the categories by more than 15 percent.
Gurley had pushed for purpose and function in 2008. The Democrats had reluctantly agreed to the requirement in exchange for getting GOP Commissioner Joe Bryan to support an $18.5 million increase in school funding that year.
But almost from the start, the school system complained about the lack of flexibility in the budgeting requirements.
In a Dec. 4, 2008 letter to the commissioners, then-school board Chairwoman Rosa Gill asked the commissioners to remove the budgetary restriction, saying it was burdensome.
"Monitoring budget adjustments at purpose and function levels requires additional administrative staff time both at the central and school levels," Gill wrote.
After the 2008 elections in which Democrats gained the majority of the board of commissioners, the requirement was dropped January 2009 in a party-line vote.
"This is the commissioners saying to the school board, 'We don't trust you,' " said newly elected Commissioner Stan Norwalk at the time.
Now that the GOP is back in the majority on the commissioners, we'll see how quickly Gurley gets the change implemented.
Comments
It looks like the Wake
Tue, 11/09/2010 - 18:55 — user12345It looks like the Wake County school board's budget could go back to getting greater scrutiny from the board of commissioners.
I would like to see Ron explaining each penny spent for a while so he can get a dose of Republican oversight .... really, Tony had to do it to the Republican BOE since he did it to the Democrats. I am guessing what all is said and done, CC which provides 1/4 of the budget?? will end up consuming 100% of the BOE workload. You have to love public education.
Change
Tue, 11/09/2010 - 15:16 — HereWeGoWhat happened to "Stay out of school board business"?
Was just having that same thought.
Wed, 11/10/2010 - 09:36 — Dove314I thought CC and Bob and so many others here voted for these guys because they would stay out of supervising the BoE not provide more oversight and add costs to the BoE. Is this a suprise to those who promoted the Republicans as being more hands off the schools?
So...
Wed, 11/10/2010 - 17:06 — Bob_SconceNone of the candidates said everything that I wanted to hear about the Commissioners' relationship with the schools. In the end, I voted for the ones that were the least distasteful.
Sure, the district might get function-and-purpose budgeting, but that's a whole lot better than Nichols interjecting himself into every decision the school board makes.
Frankly, I came pretty close to voting differently -- if the Democrats hadn't made the Commissioners' race a referendum on the school board, I probably would have voted for at least one, and perhaps two, of them.
Got it -- it's "least
Wed, 11/10/2010 - 18:11 — virginiadareGot it -- it's "least distasteful" to have county commissioners who by their past actions and current statements have indicated they will NOT adequately fund our schools, even though they will meddle just as much if not more than the Democrats they were running against.
yes.
Wed, 11/10/2010 - 09:46 — CaryCurmudgeonyes.
Does this bother you?
Wed, 11/10/2010 - 12:40 — Dove314Does this bother you or make you feel like they flip-flop as much as any other politician?
It bothers me because at
Wed, 11/10/2010 - 13:34 — CaryCurmudgeonIt bothers me because at this point I don't support purpose and function budgeting. But this is not a flip-flop on Mr. Gurley's part. At our debate, he came out strongly in support of purpose and function.
While I don't agree with Mr. Gurley's direction on this, quite honestly I find it refreshing to see a politician do what they said they were going to do.
Confused
Wed, 11/10/2010 - 18:44 — Dove314I thought your earlier post reflected this was a surprise but this post suggests you expected this and it was no surprise.