Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education decided to take more time to discuss its local budget request during its meeting on Tuesday night. 

The board members met for two days of budget workshops last week to determine a list of budget priorities. Several members also visited a forum hosted by the Forsyth County Association of Educators to hear directly from staff about their priorities. On Tuesday, Superintendent Don Phipps presented a base budget proposal with flat spending across departments, as well as a list of additional priorities that would require about $30 million in increased funding from the county. 

Read further about the district’s budget priorities here. 

The original plan was for the board to approve a request on Tuesday and pass it along to the county on Wednesday. However, the hard deadline for a request isn’t until May 15. A majority of the board members felt they needed more time to reflect on the district’s needs before making the most educated request possible.  

“I am struggling with that turnaround time,” Board Member Sabrina Coone said. “I think giving us a little more time would be beneficial.” 

The board will meet again on Tuesday, April 21 for another budget workshop. 

Board Schedule Policy 

During the Policy Committee meeting, the board members weighed formal changes to their election and meeting schedules.  

The first change to Policy 9000 on the board’s bylaws would incorporate a new state law that adopted staggered terms for Board of Education members.  

Under the new law, in this year’s election, the candidates who win the most votes in District 1 and the first and second most votes in Districts 2 and 3 would serve full four-year terms. The other candidates who win seats would serve two-year terms and then be up for election again in 2028. Starting in 2028, all board members will be elected to four-year terms, but elections will continue on the staggered schedule.  

The second change would shift the board’s meeting schedule. The board currently has two committee meetings and a regular full meeting twice a month. Under the new proposed schedule, the board would have a longer full meeting once a month and all four committees would meet on one separate day.  

Bi-monthly full meetings are uncommon for North Carolina school boards, and shifting to a monthly model would bring WS/FCS more in line with the rest of the state. It would also lead to fewer late nights for the board members and the district staff who work at board meetings because of the shorter format of committee meetings. However, it would also reduce the number of public comment periods available in any given month. 

The board members chose to table the policy edits until a later meeting. 

Audit Presentation 

The board was also scheduled to hear a presentation from Forvis Mazars on their annual independent financial audit. However, due to a clerical oversight, the board members did not receive the audit before the meeting. As a result, the board voted to reschedule their discussion for a future meeting so they can have time to review the report. 

Starting today, the audit report is available for the public to review at https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:ec6bbdb8-5447-4264-99f3-27d5b369af39.  

The Board of Education will meet again on Tuesday, April 28.