The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board began ranking funding priorities for the upcoming budget at a workshop on Thursday morning.
Superintendent Don Phipps compiled a list of more than a dozen categories, including full-time assistant principals, mental health staff, bilingual family support, technology replacements and more.
He asked board members to choose their top five. All present members had support for the exceptional children, or EC, department on their list. Phipps says this is the number one pick he’s heard from the school community, too.
“I've asked our EC department to take a look at what would be needed to get us to a staffing level where we feel comfortable," Phipps said. "Not that we're not meeting needs now — we want to do the best job we can.”
The EC department was hit hard with cuts amid the district’s financial crisis. By state standards, it was overstaffed, but many educators say they were already stretched thin.
Phipps added that the state only provides EC funding for 13% of a district’s total population. But in Winston-Salem/Forsyth County, EC students make up 16-17%.
“Now, every one of those students that's in that category has a need, and they deserve to have those needs met," Phipps said. "And we're doing what we can to meet those needs, but we don't have the funding to fully implement everything the way we'd like to.”
Several board members also expressed support for another smaller budget request: funding for an audit and reorganization study of central office staff.
Phipps said the district would begin taking steps to develop a request for proposals that could be released in the spring.
Officials will be sharing an online survey on the district's website in the coming days for the community to weigh in on the budget priorities.
