By Bradley Cole
(CHARLOTTE, NC)- A month-long funding feud between Mecklenburg County and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools hit a nasty point as the county is set to withhold $56 million of funding from the school system.
The plan came about on May 6 when Mecklenburg County Manager, Dena Diorio, proposed to withhold the funds in her budget proposal. The decision came after Diorio said she wanted the school system to provide a detailed plan to help the low-performing schools in the district.
Data provided by the county reveals 42 schools of CMS are low-performance out of 166.
In her presentation, Diorio stated she wanted the school system to come up with a plan that is "designed to improve educational outcomes & college & career readiness for all students, including quantifiable goals, specified targets, and defined timeframes to achieve those targets.”
The feud has seen both sides form different arguments on the matter. The $56 million is 11% of the county’s $531 million the school system receives from the county. $27.4 million of that budget was set to go to school-based staff, such as principals, learning specialists and will also deny raises for county-funded teachers.
In a press release by the school system, the county’s budget was approved on June 1 via a 7 to 2 vote and underfunds CMS by $81 million. A 2020 Local School Finance Study by the North Carolina Public School Forum, showed that Mecklenburg County ranked 83rd out of 100 counties when it comes to Relative Effort Funding.
After the vote, the Board of Education notified the County Commission on June 1 that they intend to dispute resolution, which is provided by NCGS 115C431, the press release read.
Elyse Dashew, the chair of the Board of Education, shared her disappointment in the release.
“We are dismayed that this funding dispute has reached the point where we must seek statutory resolution -- but we will not stand by while the County impedes our efforts to educate students,” said Elyse Dashew, chair of the Board of Education.”
The two sides will now meet for the first step of the resolution process and it’s a requirement they meet within seven days of the county’s vote. If there is still no resolution after the sides meet, mediation will take place. And if there is still not an agreement, the County is required to provide the funding according to the formula in the statute, per the release.
A special joint meeting between the school system and county commissioners was held June 7 and the county still withholding the funding. The two sides will now go into mediation.