LAURINBURG — School and county officials agreed on a preliminary proposal on the amount of funding the county will provide the school system under $10 million in the next three years.
After months of discussion, members of the liaison committee — commissioners Whit Gibson, Bob Davis and Guy McCook and school board members Jamie Sutherland, Summer Woodside and Wayne Cromartie — agreed on a preliminary financial agreement Thursday to fund Scotland County Schools.
The three-year proposal would reduce the amount of funding the county provides the schools to $9.894 million by the 2020-2021 school year.
The committee asked that the yearly reduction amounts not be released until they had a chance to go over them with their respective boards.
“I like the proposal of three years. I think what that allows us to do is go down less than the 2.25 percent and it still gets us below the $10 million after the three years,” said Gibson. “We would like to be in the $9.7 million range. If we can agree on a number that gets us below the $10 million in three years that the school board will be receptive to I think we’ll have enough to reduce the tax rate by the two pennies.”
The commissioners originally suggested the county reduce it’s financing of the schools by 2.25 percent each year for the next three years, but the school board felt that reduction was higher than they were comfortable with.
“Not knowing what is going to happen next year with a $1 million liability from the state is going to prohibit the school board from agreeing to go down 2.25 percent,” said Sutherland. “I don’t think we’re trying not to go down, I think our proposal shows we want to continue a downward trend, I just don’t think we can commit to doing it as fast as you guys have proposed.”
So Davis recommended during the liaison committee’s August meeting that the county commissioners and the board of education each come up with a proposal on the county’s funding of the schools. The boards exchanged proposals prior to their September meetings so they could be discussed.
The current funding agreement between the county and the schools runs through 2017-2018 and was reached through mediation in 2014.
In 2015-16, the school system received $10,826,612 in current expense funding from the county a number that had decreased 2.25 percent over the last two years. The school system received $10,583,013 in 2016-17 and will receive $10,344,895 for 2017-18.
The committee also agreed that the county would continue to provide the school system with an additional $300,000 each year for capital projects, such as roof replacements.
The preliminary proposal will now be presented to the county commissioners and the board of education for consideration.
If both boards adopt the proposal it would supersede the statutorily imposed school funding formula, which is the main goal of the committee.
The current funding formula indexes Scotland County’s level of local school funding to the actions of other low-wealth counties, many of which are growing at a faster rate than Scotland.
The county commissioners will hold their next meeting on Oct. 2 at 7 p.m. and the school board will meet the following week, Oct. 9 at 6 p.m. The liaison committee will reconvene on Monday, Oct. 16 at 5 p.m.
Amber Hatten can be reached at 910-506-3170.