Understanding Our School Budget

The Wilson Education Partnership Community Guide to Understanding Our School Budget, published April 2007, is designed to introduce parents, voters, taxpayers, residents, businesses and school employees to the Wilson County Schools budget and explain how it works.  

WEP developed the Guide as a tool to provide readers with a common baseline of information about how our public schools are funded. The Guide explains three types of school funding: Operations, Capital and Enterprise Funds. It details where the money comes from and where the money goes for each category of funding. A description of Wilson County Schools includes statistics, comparisons to other school systems and a historical review of school facilities.  

Tips are also included to help citizens understand ways they can stay informed and have a say in budget decisions. Contact information is provided for members of the Wilson County Board of Education, Wilson County Board of Commissioners and North Carolina General Assembly, as well as a list of websites with school budget information.

School administrators presented the 2007-08 budget request to the County Commissioners on May 8.   Wilson County Schools requested $18,032,156 for operations and $19,532,156 for capital outlay (with most of this earmarked for construction of the new elementary school).   Requested increases over the current level of funding are due to rising utilities costs, a growing student population, technology updates and the need to increase local supplements for employees in order to remain competitive in recruiting teachers.

The County Commissioners approved the 2007-08 budget on June 28 with these allocations for Wilson County Schools: $15,946,119 for operations (including an additional appropriation of $500,000 more than the county manager's recommended budget) and $16,721,119 for capital outlay.   The total school system local 2007-08 budget includes an increase of $802,865 over the 2006-07 budget.  

According to Superintendent Larry Price, "The Commissioners have demonstrated their understanding of the need for additional funding for our schools, and we are grateful for their support.   This increase will allow us to operate the school system without cutting personnel or programs for next year, which would have been required without the additional appropriation."