Dear School Board Members/Superintendents/Board Assistants:

Tomorrow the House Judiciary 1 Committee will consider H1031:  Local Ed Funding Dispute Process.  This bill is based upon the report from the Program Evaluation Division and approved by the Joint Program Eval Oversight Committee.  The bill would change the current budget dispute process between boards of education and county commissions where first there is mediation and if mediation fails then the school board can file suit in superior court.  The new process under the bill would continue the mediation processbut if the mediation is not successful instead of the board filing suit an automatic funding formula would be triggered.  The formula would be the amount appropriated per student the previous school year multiplied by 1+ the Employment Cost Index (ECI) for primary and secondary education x the ADM for the upcoming year.  If this happens 3 years in a row there would be an additional penalty of adding 3% to the ECI.

NCSBA has expressed concern continuously that this funding formula does not work for capital disputes.  If the county commissioners essentially appropriate nothing for school capital then then the formula would derive nothing.  On the flip side if a county appropriated a large sum the previous year it could create a large appropriation in the subsequent year.  Both NCSBA and the County Commissioners Association have expressed concerns about how this plays out for capital.  The two organizations have been in constant conversation to try to come up with an alternative that both sides can agree upon but have not reached any compromise.

If you are concerned about this or any other part of the bill, I would encourage you to contact the members of the committee (especially if you have a member who represents your school district) before their meeting at 1 pm Wednesday.  The members of the committee are below.

Click on each person’s name to pull up their contact info.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at lwinner@ncsba.or or Sean Holmes at 919-747-6688.

Leanne

Leanne E. Winner
Director of Governmental Relations
NC School Boards Association
(919)747-6686