If there’s one thing that schools are stereotyped for, it’s being underfunded. Often there are insufficient finances to get the upgraded tech, renovations, admin positions, or extra-curricular options that students need to have the best possible educational experience. Things changed after the COVID years, however, when the government started giving schools extra money in the form of ESSER funds to help bring students back into in-person learning. Schools were finally able to hire the staff and purchase the equipment they had needed for years.
Unfortunately, this increased spending meant that when the crisis ended and the funding got pulled, schools suddenly found themselves with too many employees and too high maintenance costs. This sudden change back to pre-COVID budgets left many school districts with massive over-billings. Forsyth County was audited last year and was found to be $16 million over budget, resulting in a drastic initiative to freeze and reduce spending across the county.
“There was some extra money through COVID that was provided, and all that’s phasing out and going away now. They’re trying to cut spending. We’re losing a few positions at West Forsyth and all over the district,” assistant principal David Small said.
As this is a county-wide issue, the majority of the effects of this budget breach will be felt at the administrative level, without too much falling to individual schools.
“You’ve got the students here. There have to be people in front of them, and getting rid of teachers and those types of salaries is not feasible,” English teacher Karen Fletcher said. “The cuts are going to have to come in somewhere else because if you’re hired on the county level to be an assistant superintendent, [you] are going to tend to make more money than a teacher.”
For some, however, the deficit has some very serious drawbacks. There will be one assistant principal and several teachers leaving before next year.
“I was surplused this year from CTE. We are losing a CTE position over here at West. So, I am currently in a pool of teachers that will have to find another home for next year,” 3D modeling teacher Mac Porter said.
Although there has been no official declaration of any changes to the programs offered at West, there is some concern as to what may happen to reduce the budget overdraft.
“I hope things aren’t taken away from West that are needed, like certain EC programs. I feel like those are very important,” SGA president senior Sydney Baldwin said
As for extracurricular activities and sports, one can only assume that some manner of restrictions may be imposed, although nothing is known for sure.
“I’m sure it’s going to have the trickle-down effect on us, but specifically right now it’s unknown, which is the scary part. We don’t know what’s going to be cut out next year or what might be missed because of money needing to be spent elsewhere,” baseball coach Kevin McIntosh said.
At this point, everything is mere speculation. There is not much known about how the district plans to proceed with this new knowledge about their budget, especially considering how the CFO of the district resigned a few days ago. Everything is still up in the air at this point, but hopefully the district will be able to learn from this and move forward with a new financial plan.
