The issue dividing the School Board and the County Commissioners has been framed as a no-frills, year-round system costing $625 million over the next four years versus a $1.5 billion proposal based on existing schedules and existing school designs. Lost in this dispute is a lack of clarity on either side of the dispute of the consequences of WCPSS moving away from existing school designs and schedules toward the Commissioners vision of an "efficient" school system.

Before getting into those consequences of an "efficient" school system, the difference between the two boards should be defined rationally. It is not $875 million. It is the $90 million per year difference in cost to finance the bonds or $210 per household per year spread over roughly 300,000 households plus $27 million paid by the County's businesses.

While a $210 cost per household is significant amount, this calculation strips away the emotional content of the $625 million versus $1.5 billion as framed by Tony Gurley, Chairman of the County Commissioners. He likely speaks for the other Commissioners of both parties. If they had disagreed they would have spoken out.

Lost in the debate is what the public gains from this added $210 per year.

1. School buildings that are an asset that raise property values in the surrounding area. School buildings that will last for decades. Schools that provide recreational and community activities for all of the public.
2. A school system that is a major attraction when recruiting businesses to relocate here bringing highly-paid knowledge-based jobs
3. A school system that:
   • Offers some degree of choice in schedules, e.g. avoiding the chaos of children on different tracks;
   • Allows our poorly paid teachers the opportunity to supplement their incomes with a summer job or study for an advanced degree;
   • Minimizes disruptive teacher turn-over;
   • Avoids more latch-key kids whose low-income parents cannot afford day care during the three week inter-sessions in year-round schools.
   • Offers a wide range of electives such as foreign languages, advanced placement courses, band, athletics, advanced science courses, vocational courses and special programs in magnet schools. Many of these "frills" would have to go to satisfy the vision of the Commissioners.
4. Sufficient major renovations so that WCPSS does not evolve to a two class school system with newcomers in new schools and long term residents in older schools with balky air conditioners and leaking roofs.
5. Certainly the existing school system has a higher initial cost (which the Commissioners stress) but like a fuel efficient hybrid auto they make back those costs over time. Specifically lower air conditioning bills, lower maintenance costs and reduced wear and tear.

All of these benefits are threatened in the face of an initial savings of $210 per household per year. Does that make sense? Many on the school board argue that they must get the bond referendum below the psychological barrier of $1 billion dollars in order to be passed by the public. And so, in the face of the commissioners demands, they diligently work to tear down what they have so carefully built-up over the years. Does that make sense? Simply cut the referendum to $750 million to cover a two years of construction instead of four. Poof_that barrier is gone. Besides, in this fast changing world, no one can predict what enrollments or construction costs will be over four years.

And if the Commissioners opt not to raise taxes sufficiently to preserve the benefits of existing school designs and schedules, the board should draw a line in the sand and, as allowed by state statute G.S. 115C - 431 challenge the Commissioners for their fair share of funds from the growth in revenues. This was done nine years ago. The agreement hammered out under a court appointed mediator was disavowed by the current County Commissioners who had their other projects they preferred to finance.

WakeUp! notes the need for steady evolutionary cost efficiencies by WCPSS. And there is always room to trim budgets by careful prioritization. But the school board and the Commissioners should stop the mad, unplanned race to the bottom under a tight deadline. There is too much at stake for the next generation, for parents, for grand-parents, for teachers, for citizens with good jobs and those looking for work, for businesses that depend on a skilled workforce and even for retirees with no children in WCPSS. There is too much at stake for what we owe one another as a community.