A state budget shortfall has led to education cuts for the current budget year, but local officials don’t expect it to have a direct impact on classroom instruction.

Watauga County School Board chairman Lowell Younce

Watauga County Schools must return $177,414 to help the state cope with a budget shortfall projected to exceed $1 billion in the current fiscal year. The local reversions will not require any layoffs and will not have a direct effect on classroom instruction. The reversions from the Watauga County Schools are the

local share of a 4 percent reduction ordered in the state’s public education budget by Gov. Mike Easley, slightly below the 5 percent across-the-board cut made in other state agencies.

School board chairman Lowell Younce said the budget committee had reviewed several options for the cuts. “We’re not going to sacrifice teaching positions,” Younce said. “We’re blessed with good local funding to help with school supplies, teacher assistant program, and career technology.”

“We’ll have to send money back, but we’re not going to lay anybody off. We’ll just tighten our belt with what we already have.”

Younce said the shuffling of local and state funds would help ease some of the impact.

“We don’t operate on a wish list,” he said.

“We operate on basic needs, and we’re looking at the same forecast for next year. We’re asking our people to look at just what they need.”

A total of $117 million dollars will be cut from public school funding across the state, with $59 million coming from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and $58 million from among the 115 local public school systems. State funds account for about 58 percent of the budget for the Watauga County Schools.

N.C. Rep. Cullie Tarleton (D-93) said the cuts are essential and may become even more severe next year. “Based on what I’m hearing when I’m in Raleigh, there is no money,” he said.

“We’re looking at a shortfall of $1.5 billion to $2.5 billion, possibly leading to a 10 percent cut across the board.”

Tarleton added that the sentiment is to try to protect education spending but there will be few new sources of revenue for the state budget.

“We’re probably looking at something in the $18 billion range instead of the $20 billion range,” he said of the 2009 budget.

“Our constitution requires a balanced budget, and I don’t think there’s any appetite for any new taxes. My hope is education will take fewer cuts than some others areas. We’re all going to have to tighten our belts in the government the same way we have at home.”

The school system has already sought additional money from the state, with the Watauga County Board of Education unanimously adopting a resolution requesting its share of a fine-and-forfieture fund.

The fine money was collected through parking tickets and other fines through the university system.

The money, $747 million total, was diverted from a fund that would have upgraded technology in public schools and a court ruling determined the state should distribute the money to school systems. Watauga County’s share would be $2.3 million, or $505 per student.

Tarleton said that money is not readily available and will have to be sorted through along with other budget issues.

“Obviously. we will respect the court’s decision,” he said.

“That money is not sitting in a pot somewhere. We’ll have to put that on the table when we come back to Raleigh.”

The school board’s resolution also “encourages the North Carolina General Assembly to devise a fair and reasonable solution schedule for repayment of the funds with new revenues, not by supplanting existing education appropriations.”

The school system could be facing even steeper cuts next year. Projects suggest a state budget shortfall of $2 billion or more in the fiscal year that begins July 1.