Several questions by commissioners resulted in the delay of the county reviewing the school system's budget for another week.

Commissioners on the Cumberland County Budget Committee canceled a tentative meeting with the Board of Education this past Tuesday because the submitted BOE budget didn't contain actual numbers.

Upon opening the packet submitted by BOE Business Manager Cindy Randol Monday evening, Cumberland County Finance Director Nathan Brock said, "It looks like they are showing actuals, but they are not showing local revenue numbers."

"Why give something incomplete? This is a waste of time. This is crunch time — they need to fill in all the spaces here," 5th District Commissioner Sharon York said.

"Why not use the BEP formula to show that revenue?" 9th District Commissioner Carmin Lynch asked.

Commissioners on the committee want the BOE to submit a full budget reflecting audited numbers and local revenue.

"They need to start with audited numbers and follow it through with those," 3rd District Commissioner Lynn Tollett said.

After discussing it for a few minutes commissioners decided to put off the meeting for one more week to give the BOE a chance to update the numbers.

Commissioners on the committee said they want the BOE to submit its budget with audited numbers, fill in the blanks and give some attempt at the projected local revenue numbers.

"We really want to have actual numbers and the fund balance calculations from the BOE with copies of their budget to look at ahead of time before our meeting with them. We don't need to be going back and forth on this like we did last year," Tollett said.

Cumberland County Director of Schools Aarona VanWinkle said the BOE does not receive the state audited numbers until the fall and the numbers supplied to the county are the numbers that were given on the end of the year financial report submitted by the state.

"The Board of Education doesn't set the local revenue. That has to come from the county commission. We don't know what they want to put in there. And I will present the budget committee with a fund balance worksheet that explains it. I will present all of that and welcome any questions the committee has as soon as I am able to meet with them," VanWinkle said.

Commissioners set the meeting with the BOE for Tuesday, Aug. 5 at 4:30 p.m. in the small courtroom at the Cumberland County Courthouse. The public is welcome to attend.

Trending Video