It's safe to say that there will be a lot of grumbling from the school board today about the amount they're getting from county commissioners.

As noted in today's article, the $319.2 million being provided by the county is far less than the $355.5 million requested by the school board. They can get a lot of the way down by removing the new programs, but that puts the budget at around $330 million so more than $10 million will have to be cut from somewhere.

They'll likely start the discussions at today's committee of the whole meeting, which begins at 1 p.m., with the list of cuts that the staff put out in March. That's the one that was focused on cuts to employees, such as not giving them as large a raise as they'd normally get and slashing dental benefits.

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Here's the quick hit on what happened with the county commissioners on the school budget.

By a 4-3 vote, the commmissioners voted to give the school board an increase of $18.5 million, far less than the $54.7 million increase requested by the school board. Of that $18.5 million increase, $3 million will be put in reserve to make sure that this fall's enrollment matches projections.

Additionally, the commissioners are specifying by purpose and function how the $319.2 million can be spent. The school board can make changes of up to 15 percent in each category without getting approval of the commissioners.

Finally, the school budget is based on getting a 6 percent raise from the state for teachers. If the raise only turns out to be 4 percent, the commissioners want part of the $2.6 million difference to go toward a 0.25 percent supplement increase for teachers.

The school board asked for that supplement increase as part of the new programs in its budget, but likely will be cut based on getting less than the amount requested from commissioners.

Commissioners are making this request because of the expectation that the state raise will be less than 6 percent. The state House has only signed off on a 3 percent raise.

A very divided board of commissioners signed off today on the $62.8 million renovation project for Wake Forest-Rolesville High School.

The commissioners agreed to delay the opening of two new elementary schools to help provide a majority of the funding for the renovations. The plan calls for the high school to be emptied out for the 2009-10 school year with students going to the new Heritage High while the campus is renovated.

School leaders said the timing was critical for the renovations while growth had slowed enough among younger students for the new schools not to be needed so soon.

Joe Bryan, chairman of the board of commissioners, had the resolution modified to say that the school board was consciously changing what was in the 2006 bond issue and the CIP by making the request.

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This change requires nothing from the reader. There will be a link to the older posts, and you won't need to change your bookmarks. If you have trouble finding your favorite blog or you have a comment, please email feedback@newsobserver.com.

— Rachel Carter

The school board could get even less money than originally recommended by County Manager David Cooke.

There seems to be strong support from the county commissioners to slash Cooke's recommended tax increase. Instead of increasing the tax rate by 2.5 cents, commissioners are interested in an increase of 1.68 cents.

An increase of 1.68 cents would be just enough to cover payments on bonds used to finance schools and other projects approved by voters.

Slashing that tax increase would mean cutting $9.4 million from the budget, including $2.6 million from the school's share. This would mean the school board would get a $15.9 million increase instead of the $18.5 million jump.

It's a far cry from the $35 million increase orginally proposed by Superintendent Del Burns and the $54.7 million bump approved by the school board.

Cooke said they could save the money because the school district assumed teachers would get an average 6 percent pay raise from the state. Based on the state House budget calling for a 3 percent increase, Cooke said they could reduce the school budget by assuming a 4 percent raise.

The commissioners, at this point, haven't indicated they'll start specifying where the money will be spent.

The commissioners have held off on adopting the budget for now.

There is a last-minute charge to persuade county commissioners to at least give the school board the $35 million increase originally proposed by Superintendent Del Burns.

Soon after Burns proposed the $35 million increase in March, school board members said they needed to ask for more. This led to the $54.7 million increase now on the table with the commissioners.

But with commissioners apparently intent on only giving an $18.5 million increase, school system backers have been lobbying for $35 million. They’ve argued that amount is needed just to keep pace because only $5 million of that total is for new programs.

Harvey Schmitt, president of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce, publicly broached the $35 million figure at this month’s budget public hearings.

Rosa Gill, chairwoman of the school board, has also said they can get by with $35 million.

More recently, Commissioner Tony Gurley said they’ve been getting lots of e-mail messages from people urging them to go with the superintendent’s budget. That’s not flying with him.

“There is no superintendent’s budget,” Gurley said. “We only have the school board’s budget. They rejected his [superintendent’s] budget.”

UPDATE
You can watch the commissioners' meeting live online by going here for the link. This is a feature the school board would like to add in the future.

Rosa Gill, chairwoman of the school board, has got a coup d’état on her hands.

As noted in today’s article, Gill faces opposition in her bid to be re-elected to a one-year term as chairwoman on Tuesday. Even though Lori Millberg won’t comment, she’s cited by other board members as being Gill’s challenger.

It’s leading to some interesting bedfellows. For instance, Ron Margiotta is backing Gill despite their many public tiffs.

“I believe Rosa has done a good job in reaching out to the community,” Margiotta said.

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School board members are bracing themselves for bad news from today’s meeting of the county commissioners.

It’s looking likely that commissioners will only give the school board a total of $319.2 million, $36 million less than requested. Potentially even worse for the school board, commissioners could also decide to allocate that $319.2 million for specific purposes rather than providing a lump sum.

The commissioners could tie the school board's hands on how much money to spend for classroom instruction, administration, transportation and other needs.

“I hope it really doesn’t happen,” said school board member Kevin Hill.

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It looks like the school board has found a way to overcome fears about turning over school construction, maintenance and renovation to the county.

As noted in today’s article, the school board came up with a proposal on Thursday that would attach numerous strings on the commissioners. Examples include:
* Requiring all 900 school facilities employees to remain working for the school district even though they’d be supervised by the county.
* Retaining the final say on school locations with the school board.
* Retaining final say on school designs with the school board.
* Developing joint maintenance standards for schools.
* Preventing the county from infringing on the school board’s student assignment authority.

A number of facilities employees have contacted school board members to say they don’t want to become county employees. Board members have repeatedly said they feel an obligation to make sure those employees aren’t negatively impacted by any deal.

Board members also wanted to make sure that turning over acquisition of school sites to the county wouldn't tie their hands when it comes to reassignment. For instance, they don’t want a developer to be able to get the county to guarantee seats at a school in exchange for land.

UPDATE
Click here to see the plan.

We'll see a clean-cut Robert Escamilla by the end of today.

Escamilla, the former Enloe High School who was reprimanded for having an anti-Islamic speaker at school, will hold a press conference today to update his situation. He'll announce that he's off probation.

As part of his settlement agreement with the school system, Escamilla had to get at least at standard ratings on his teacher evaluation form at Phillips High School. This also would mean he is no longer under an action plan, which is the equivalent of probation for a teacher facing possible dismissal.

As part of the press conference, Escamilla will get a hair cut. He grew long locks to protest his treatment by the school system. The hair will go to Locks of Love.

In his press release, Escamilla says he's working on a book about his experiences.

UPDATE
Click here for Friday's article.

It's going to be at least a few more months before the state Supreme Court makes any new rulings on the year-round case.

The case was not among the petitions released this afternoon by the court. The justices are on break in July. The next time they're scheduled to meet and potentially make a ruling is Aug. 26.

The court is weighing whether to hear the appeal filed by Wake CARES.

The practical result of all this is that the temporary stay against the appellate granted last month is still in effect. It will remain so until at least the start of the school year.

Today could be the school board's last chance to come up with a way that will persuade county commissioners to give more than an $18.5 million increase.

The work session is officially only about the proposal from the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce and the Wake Education Partnership to develop a multi-year funding plan and to turn over construction to the county. But commissioners will be watching to see if the school board's actions are enough for them to impact their budget vote next week.

The big stumbling block the school board will try to work through is their apprehension about turning over construction, renovation and maintenance of schools to the county.

The school board's goal is to develop a draft plan today and finalize it on Tuesday. Even though it's one day after the commissioners are planning to adopt the budget on Monday, they've said they could amend it based on what the school board does.

While it looks like the $54.7 million requested increase is dead, the school board would at least like to get the $35 million increase originally proposed by Superintendent Del Burns.

It's also possible today that the state Supreme Court will announce whether it will hear the year-round case.

Today will not go down as one of the smoothest graduation days in Wake's history.

The school district is investigating why this morning's graduation ceremony at the Progress Energy Center for the Performing Arts became so overcrowded that dozens of people were barred from entering. Needless to say, it left a lot of people angry that they couldn't attend despite having tickets.

"It was a real unfortunate situation," said Chip Sudderth, a Wake schools' spokesman. "We're trying to determine why it happened."

Theories for the problem include counterfeit tickets being used and people being allowed in without tickets. Sudderth said Fuquay-Varina gave out the same number of tickets as last year when there were no problems.

The good news is that it doesn't look like any of the other graduations there had similar problems.

A few weeks ago, folks at Fuquay-Varina were saying how glad they were about being at Progress, formerly known as Memorial Auditorium, because it had air conditioning. The drawback is that is less seating than Reynolds Coliseum, which has no air conditioning.

The school district's firearms policy saga just won't seem to get resolved.

As noted in today's article by Sam LaGrone, the school board's policy committee again delayed action on the firearms policy on Tuesday because of additional insurance concerns. It's uncertain when a new policy could be in place.

School board members Lori Millberg and Patti Head said they'd like to have it in place for the new school year.

Tthe question is whether school groups will want to get involved in any activities when there's not even a policy in place yet. They may be wary of getting shut out like the students at East Wake High School were earlier this year.

Should high schools in Wake wait until the final grades are in before naming the valedictorian and salutatorian?

As noted in today’s article, the decision not to wait at Southeast Raleigh High cost a senior his chance to be named co-valedictorian. Whether it affected other schools this year is uncertain.

While it’s not an official school board policy, the practice in Wake is for high schools to name the valedictorian and salutatorian based on class rank as of the third quarter. This means the selections are made in April.

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