GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Guilford County School board voted unanimously to approve the Superintendent’s 2020-2021 budget recommendation on Tuesday.
The district plans to concentrate on making up time for lost learning time due to the coronavirus.
Support and resources for recovering lost learning time will be funded, in part, by the anticipated federal K-12 Emergency Relief Fund. The district is expected to get approximately $21 million in K-12 Emergency Relief Funds.
This comes after new research by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) estimates that students are expected to retain only 70% of this year’s reading gains and less than 50% of math skills learned this year as compared to a typical school year. District officials said a blend of in-classroom and at-home instruction will be required to make up the lost time.
The district also plans to redirect existing state, local and federal money as necessary to help students. The district’s total proposed budget for 2020-2021 is $821.8 million when all funds are included. Full details of the budget plan can be found by clicking this link.
The proposal includes a request of $1.6 million to keep school bus driver raises in 2020-2021. Half of this request was funded by the Board of County Commissioners in January 2020.
There is also a $9 million allotment for HVAC projects and more than $5 million set aside for roofing projects. There is also $2.5 million that will be used to address system-wide mechanical, electrical and plumbing needs in the district.
The five priorities GCS leadership said it wants to achieve in the course of the 2020-21 budget:
- Extended learning time to help students recover lost knowledge and skills, and spur greater academic growth;
- Ensuring that students have laptops and tablets that support remote learning;
- Expanding access to connectivity for students and families;
- Diagnostic assessments to plan instruction and design appropriate interventions; and,
- Individualized academic support to remediate and accelerate learning.
The board will now submit the budget to the Board of County Commissioners for approval.
