Because of state budget cuts, students and parents will see fewer teachers and slightly larger class sizes in some local schools when classes resume Aug. 25.
But Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools officials say they are more concerned about the cuts' long-term effects on public education.
Donny Lambeth, chairman of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Board of Education, said he is worried that staff reductions will undercut improvements the system has made in recent years in student achievement "while burning out our good teachers and staff."
He also said the system has several schools that need repairs and renovations.
"That will require future investments in our schools," Lambeth said. "The real impact of budget cuts will be felt for years."
The school system expect to get a total of about $431.5 million from state, local and federal sources. About $277 million will come from the $19.7 billion state budget that legislators approved this month, overriding a veto by Gov. Bev Perdue. That is about 4 percent, or $11.3 million, less than the school system received in state money last year.
The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners has allocated $112 million to the school system for the 2011-12 fiscal year. That's about $300,000 less than the system received for the current year, and $3.5 million less than school administrators requested.
The system also will receive about $42.5 million in federal money, said Kerry Crutchfield, the system's budget director.
Administrators will ask the school board to implement a one-day furlough for all employees next year, a move that would save $500,000 to $950,000.
The school system expects to cut 211 jobs, including 118 teaching positions, to offset reductions in state and county money that the school system will receive in the 2011-12 fiscal year, Crutchfield said.
However, the school system doesn't expect to lay off any employees because of the reduced funding. Attrition — retirements and resignations — should account for the positions lost to the budget cutbacks, Crutchfield said.
The district has about 53,000 students attending 80 schools. The school system has 7,993 employees, and about 60 percent are teachers.
Students in kindergarten through third grade will see slightly smaller class sizes, Crutchfield said. Class sizes in fourth and fifth grades will remain the same size, and there will be larger classes in middle and high schools.
System Superintendent Don Martin said every school employee will adjust to the cutbacks.
"I am confident that our staff will do all that they can to provide the same type of quality educational experiences for our children that they have in the past," Martin said. "And one can hope that students and parents won't notice the difference."
School board member A.L. "Buddy" Collins said that because the schools' staff will cope, things may appear normal on opening day, painting a misleading picture that the effects of the cuts will be minimal.
However, school officials will have no money for facility maintenance or to update technology in those buildings, Collins said.
Martin also said that the fewer employees throughout the system "will be doing more work to compensate for the positions that we won't have."
"Students' access to services will be reduced," Martin said. "Larger class sizes mean that the teacher has one or two more students to manage every day, provide support for, grade papers for and post information for on our parent assistant Web tool for parents."
Despite the cutbacks, school administrators don't expect to offer fewer courses with the exception of foreign-language classes for fifth-graders, Crutchfield said.
That measure worries board member Elisabeth Motsinger.
"We are cutting foreign languages in our elementary schools," Motsinger said. "We will not provide that service to our children."
Some of those teachers who taught fifth-grade Spanish or French will be teaching those subjects in middle or high schools, Crutchfield said.
School officials say they will have a clearer picture of the cutbacks' effects as the school year progresses.
But board member Marilyn Parker believes she knows what she'll see — that the reductions will harm classroom instruction.
"It's a step backward," Parker said. "It definitely will affect the educational process for some children, probably most of them."
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