Cabarrus County Schools district faces budget issues, leaders plan next steps

CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — Cabarrus County Schools leaders will begin working on their next budget in March and ahead of that, financial officials recently updated school board members on the district’s fiscal standing, which is facing some significant challenges.

“This year, our enrollment has increased dramatically from what we’re used to and it’s cost us a lot more money,” Superintendent John Kopicki said.

Redrawn district boundaries approved by Cabarrus County School Board

The time has come to look at re-structuring Cabarrus County Schools budgetary commitments, he said.

“As the year evolves, some of our funding sources have not come into the expectation that they thought they would,” Kopicki said.

So far this school year, the district has received less funding from the state for its average daily student enrollment and school resource officers.

“We will make sure that there is an SRO in every school,” he said. “For me, that’s a non-negotiable. We will offset that cost.”

Due to 200 more students, the exceptional children’s budget came in at $3 million more than expected and the expense of salary-scale adjustments for non-certified staff has not been cheap either.

“That has us a substantial amount of money to make sure that we make everybody whole,” Kopicki said.

Despite those numbers, Kopicki said the district is on good financial footing.

“The sky is not falling, but I just wanted to alert everyone that there’s a lot of financial decisions that have to be made as we move forward,” Kopicki said.

The district has already been scaling back parts of its highly popular Program Choice due to low enrollment while also planning to expand those with the highest attendance.

“There are several of them that we know that kids are choosing,” Kopicki said.

They include IB, the Fire Safety Academy at Concord High School, the early colleges, and the Cabarrus Health Sciences Institute.

“Any of the elected officials need to consider very strongly eliminating programs that make Cabarrus County a desired option for families,” said parent Jason Peoples.

Peoples has three kids enrolled at schools that have Program Choice options.

“I think it’s definitely something that parents keep in mind, especially when they’re looking for that next opportunity for their student,” Peoples said.

That is why Kopicki said the district faces tough decisions as it navigates servicing all students in a fast-growing county.

“With the growth comes cost, comes expenditures that we have to make sure that we are meeting,” Kopicki said.

The district is launching a new finance committee that will hold public meetings where those who are interested can get monthly updates on the district’s finances.

It will be held on the last Thursday of every month.

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