CMS Superintendent, Ann Clark
As I write this in the middle of
April, we are beginning the process
of gaining approval for the 20152016 operating budget for CharlotteMecklenburg Schools. It’s a process
that takes about two months. In this
column, I will share some information
about how the budget moves from
proposal to approval. I also want
to provide you some context and
explanation about our budget choices
for the 2015-2016 year.
This year, our county budget
request is for $428.1 million, $39.9
million more than last year. We
anticipate that our total operating
budget for 2015-2016 will be $1.4
billion. Our annual operating budget
is an expression of our commitment to providing an individualized, excellent
learning experience for every student.
First, the budget-approval process. It began in the middle of April with
the submission of the superintendent’s proposed budget to the CharlotteMecklenburg Board of Education. I gave our Board my budget proposal on
April 14 and the Board of Education is scheduled to approve our budget
request on May 12.
It’s called a budget request because in North Carolina, schools are
dependently funded. That means we don’t raise revenue for ourselves.
Instead, we receive somewhere between half and two-thirds of our operating
money from the state (this year it’s about 56 percent) and slightly less than
a third from the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners. The balance,
(less than 10 percent) comes from federal and other sources. The General
Assembly decides on the statewide amount of funding for schools, and most
of it comes through the Department of Public Instruction. So we don’t control
that funding. On the county side, we don’t control the funding either -- but
we do have the opportunity each year to make the case for our needs with
the Mecklenburg commissioners. Once the Board of Education approves
our budget request, we send it over to the county and meet with county
administrators and the commissioners in May to review it. Sometime in June,
the county commission will approve the county budget, which contains the
funding we’ll receive from the county. Final approval on the state budget
comes in toward the end of the summer, sometimes even later. (Yes, that
is after the start of the CMS fiscal year July 1. The budget calendars in our
state