Back in March, news broke that Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools was facing a $46 million deficit after overspending its budget last year.
The financial crisis stemmed from poor accounting practices, a lack of internal controls and staffing beyond the district’s means.
Since then, officials have been working to pay back the debt and prevent further overspending. Their efforts, along with the support of county commissioners and private donors, have reduced the debt down to about $13 million as of this week.
WFDD’s Education Reporter Amy Diaz spoke with News Director Eddie Garcia about where the district goes from here.
Interview Highlights
On the plan for the rest of the debt:
"So the district has developed a repayment plan. It involves making monthly payments to the two vendors that it still owes. Those payments will start next month and basically continue until the debt is paid off. Their biggest debt is to ESS, which is a company that provides substitute services. Those payments to that company are going to be about $375,000 a month for this fiscal year.
The other vendor that the district owes is Forsyth County, but officials really expect more donations to come in and wipe away that debt before they have to start making payments. But debt to vendors only accounts for about $6 million of what's left. The rest of it is basically just going to appear as a negative fund balance for the district."
On outgoing interim Superintendent Catty Moore:
"Moore is going to be leaving at the end of November, and she'll be replaced by Don Phipps on December 1. He's currently the superintendent of Caldwell County Schools. And actually, this week's meeting was Moore's last meeting. So she thanked a lot of people, thanked the staff, the school board and the community. And she said she was hopeful about the place that she was leaving the district in, but that there would still, of course, be a lot of work ahead, including repairing trust in the community, which is something that she said she thinks the new superintendent will be really good at."
On the community response to the debt reduction:
"I think there's certainly a lot of relief and joy that people are feeling because so many local groups have stepped up to fundraise for the district and show their support for public schools during this time. But all of the budget cuts that have happened over the last several months are still really taking a toll on district staff. Principals, teachers, educators in the exceptional children department, specifically, have come out to recent board meetings to talk about the low morale having to do more with less, and the impact of all of those position cuts that have actually led to more resignations. That's been really tough. And parents, of course, are still feeling concerned about the state of their children's schools."