School and county officials are working to make ends meet when it comes to budget. The Board of Education approved a proposed local budget of $56.2 million at their May meeting, the same request made of the county last year. When county manager Rick Hester released the proposed budget for 2010-2011 last week, it stipulated $49.6 million for the school system.

The school board met in a special session on May 24, where board chair Larry Strickland announced that talks between he and commissioner chairman Wade Stewart led to the decision that “the county will work to find additional funds to increase the school district funding to $51.4 million.”

“This is an important number because it impacts the amount of State funds the district would be able to obtain,” said Strickland.

The school system is already losing $6.5 million in reversion to the state, a loss that has led to the cutting of 113 teaching positions for the upcoming school year.

Strickland asked the Board to use reserve funds accrued over the past 14 months to allow schools to operate at the same level they did this past year.

Croom admitted at the May board meeting the budget has led to some “sleepless nights.”

“We can survive at $56.2 million,” Croom told the board. “The problem is, we need to realize that’s an actual cut for us, because we have grown 700 students this year, we’re growing 700 students next year, and we’re adding two high schools which will increase our utility costs, so although we’re holding the line for the county, for us locally, that’s a loss.”

According to Croom, this is the first year that the per pupil expenditures has dropped.

The school system is looking to several areas to offset some of the budget deficits, including increasing rental rates of their school facilities, a measure that will bring in $250,000 more than last year. There are also plans to cut $417,000 from the central office.

Energy coordinator Barry Honeycutt also made a presentation to the board detailing what he called “common sense practices” that could save the school system the cost of energy used by at least one of the two new high schools opening in August.

According to Honeycutt, 72 percent of the energy budget is comprised of electricity costs, which could be decreased significantly with minor behavioral changes on behalf of staff and students. Honeycutt said the acts of turning off lights in naturally lit corridors and using only half the lights in classrooms could save $100,000 a year. In addition, shutting down computers and monitors at the end of the day and unplugging technology carts could add up to $150,000 in savings. Also, powering down or eliminating classroom appliances could save up to $50,000 a year. Simply turning off the lights in vending machines would save $6,000 each year. All told, Honeycutt proposed actions that could save the school system $350,000 a year.

“Everybody can flip a light switch on and off, everybody can cut a computer monitor on and off,” he said. “One classroom and one teacher won’t make a difference, but if everybody’s doing it, it can make a huge difference.”

Croom confirmed that action must be taken.

“We are in extremely tough economic times. It does cause you to go back and look at everything that you’re doing,” he said.

The county level has been making those same evaluations. Hester called the proposed 2010-2011 budget “the most challenging” in his 11 years as county manager.

The proposed budget is $161.7 million; that’s $10 million less than last year and $18.7 million less than two years ago.

This is also the eighth consecutive fiscal year with a 78-cent tax rate.

“Considering Johnston County is one of the top 100 fastest-growing counties in the United States and the amount of debt the County has incurred over the past 10 years, this is an accomplishment to be proud of,” said Hester.

The only proposed rate increases are in the enterprise fund, which include establishing a charge of $8 per pickup size load for non-commercial yard wastes.

Citizens will have opportunities to have their say regarding the proposed county budget at upcoming Board meetings. There will be a public hearing for the county manager to present and solicit public comment on the budget on Monday, June 7 at 10:25 a.m. during the regular monthly meeting. The Board has also tentatively scheduled additional meetings regarding the budget on June 7 at 6 p.m. following the rezoning case and on June 9 at 6 p.m.

Strickland put out a call for the Board of Education to keep the public informed throughout the budgeting process.

“We do need the public of Johnston to be involved in this process,” he said. “It’s taken decades to build this school system to what we enjoy today and as we go about meeting the challenge of the economic times that we live in, we want all the stakeholders of this county to have input and be aware of what’s going on.”