|
From Staff Reports
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Buncombe County Schools may eliminate about 118 positions to help balance the budget for the 2027–2028 school year.
Regarding the need for the job cutbacks. district school leaders point to a projected $15 million shortfall, driven by declining student enrollment, federal funding reductions, and shifting state and local financial support.
Key budget pressures cited include the following;
• Declining enrollment: The district is down roughly 300 students compared to previous counts, which directly reduces future state funding allocations.
• Rising expenses: Local expenditures have climbed to about $124 million while local revenue projections sit lower, putting a squeeze on the fund balance.
• Federal and state cuts: Reductions in federal funding and changes to state wealth-based supplemental funding have accelerated the shortfall.
Managing the reductions includes the following:
• Minimizing layoffs: Officials hope to absorb the 118 position reductions through natural staff attrition, such as resignations and retirements during the hiring cycle.
• Reserves impact: Relying too heavily on emergency savings could drop district reserves well below the recommended one-month operating expense target of $10.3 million.
• Next Steps: The upcoming budget proposal and further staffing discussions are anticipated at the school board’s next meetings.
Meanwhile, the “Comment Bubble” appearing after a story on the school system cutbacks by Asheville television station WLOS (News 13) included the following assertions:
• TheOracle — “There’s at least 300 non-essential and non-instructional staff that can be thinned out. Time to work within your means.”
• TheRabid1 — “Like what?”
• Joe.AVL — “DEI positions.”
• TheRabid1 — “Ok....like?”
• TheOracle — “Make that closer to 600 across the entire district — all aides, monitors, comms staff, half the kitchen staff, all interpreters. Boom — budget balanced. It’s coming.”
• WeVotedForThis — “Yep. DOGE set high standards, thinning out nearly every government agency and program — and the results speak for themselves. MAGA WINS 24/7.”
• BridgetBiden — “Yup, that’s why we can’t fight forest fires and everyone is getting explosive diarrhea.”
• WeVotedForThis — “Yup.”
• Thelocalshateyou — “But we have the North Carolina Education Lottery.”
• TheOracle — “If you don’t play — then it don’t pay.”
• Thelocalshateyou — “You constantly post and reply with a bunch of nonsensical nothing.”
• CFT1990 — “Thank you”
• standonyourowntwofeet — “And you respond. Thanks for playing.”
• TheOracle — “Play the lottery and you’ll help pay the bills. There. That was easy. It’s your only hope anyhow.”
• Lorraine1981 — “Do some research and see what the lottery money actually goes to !!!! You will be very surprised — football fields, tracks, bigger and better baseball fields... not much on true education.”
• ILUVICE — “Somewhere along the way, schools stopped teaching and started indoctrinating .
“This is great news!
“Cut the fat and focus on education not indoctrination.”
• TigerWoods69 — “Somewhere along the way you skipped the class where they taught proper paragraph structure.”
• DaLestetBratt — “He’s been indoctrinated into a cult.”
• BridgetBiden — “Pretty sure this one is a she.”
• OneToRemember — “In the age of AI, you have 12 years to get a child ready for the workforce. A child entering the 1st grade today will graduate in 2039. Do you spend a lot of time teaching grammar and times tables when AI can do it better? A 1st grader today can ask their Apple watch what is 9*7!”
• NoOne23 — “If you want to educate your children, home school. If you want them indoctrinated, send them to school.”
• TigerWoods69 — “You have been indoctrinated by Fox ‘news.’”
• lucky.lucy — “Trump loves the uneducated. It shows with half of these commenters.”
• standonyourowntwofeet — “This coming from a puppet that totally relies on the dem-controlled media to tell he/she/it what to think, how to act, what to say, and who to vote for. Grow up, puppet, and try standing on your own two feet.”
|
