The school system must repay the money to the N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI) by April 9.
Chief Operations Officer Don Peccia will present a recommendation from Superintendent Pat Russo and the leadership team at the 4 p.m. work session to take the money from fund balance. The system expects to have at least $500,000 in the fund balance of this year’s budget.
Board Chairwoman Penny Hayes said the repayment should bring some closure to an issue that has dogged the system since last spring.
“We’ve already made revisions and put in place procedures to prevent miscodings from happening again,” she said.
DPI ordered the Moore County schools to repay the misspent funds in November. The system appealed to the State Board of Education. School board attorney Richard Schwartz presented the appeal to a state board subcommittee Feb. 11 in Chapel Hill.
The state board voted unanimously March 4 to deny the appeal. The decision was based on DPI policy that allows for an “equitable offset” to occur only within a fiscal year that a problem occurred. In Moore County’s case, the funds were misspent during the 2001, 2002 and 2003 fiscal years. The problems were not discovered until last fall.
An equitable offset is when a school system is allowed to swap out local funds it spent on items that could have been paid for with state money. The Moore County school system identified about $145,000 in legitimate local remedial expenditures that could have been paid for with state funds.
Moore County self-reported the misspent funds to the state after former board chairman Wiley Barrett asked Schwartz to conduct an investigation into the system’s use of state remedial funds last summer. The investigation was triggered by the discovery that state remedial funds had been used to reimburse North Moore High School for an SAT incentive program. Students received rewards for improved SAT scores.
Moore County had already repaid the state more than $2,000 in misspent funds directly related to the SAT incentive program at North Moore.
The majority of the misspent funds were for the salary of a former guidance counselor at North Moore. The coding for his salary had not been changed once his job duties changed, resulting in the misappropriation of state funds. More than $90,000, or 86-percent of the misspent funds, were for Montgomery’s salary over the course of three years, according to the school system.
Moore County receives about $1.75 million each year in remediation funds.
Superintendent Search
The board is expected to make a final decision on the scope of its search for a new superintendent.
During last week’s special meeting, Hayes said she wanted the board to come to a consensus on whether it will conduct a local, state or national search.
The board could conduct its own search, utilize the services of the N.C. School Board Association, or hire a national search firm.
“We have to decide if we are going to hire a firm and if so, whom,” Hayes said. “I expect that we will vote on that. We’ve gotten a list of firms from Mr. Schwartz and some information from the N.C. School Boards Association.”
The search that led to Russo’s being hired in 1999 cost the school system nearly $47,000.
The board is also expected to determine how many people will serve on the superintendent search committee. As many as 32 people, representing the business, education, faith and other communities in Moore County, could serve on the committee.
“We will be looking to determine what the composition of the committee will be,” Hayes said. “Not necessarily by individuals, but by group representation. We will also need to decide what the specific duties of the committee should be.”
Hayes said the committee could be broken up into several subcommittees. From there, the board will appoint people to the committee.
Russo’s last day on the job will be June 30.
Facility Needs
John Hawthorne, planning and construction director for Moore County Schools, and Peccia will present the board with an update on the district’s facilities needs.
The presentation will include a review of each area’s needs, long-range planning options, a review of school sizes, enrollment projections and board priorities.
Hayes said she asked for the presentation to help clarify how the system determined that five new schools are needed. The long-range planning team — which is separate from the board’s facilities committee — has been working on a plan for more than 18 months, according to Hayes.
“Some people are questioning how we arrived at that number,” Hayes said. “There has been a lot of hard work and time spent looking at these issues. This is just a good opportunity to remind people of how we arrived at that number.”
The school board is expected to pursue a local bond referendum in excess of $90 million for the construction of new schools and improvements to existing campuses.
Also Monday, the board is expected to approve a resolution to be sent to the N.C. General Assembly requesting special legislation that would permit the use of Moore County activity buses during the U.S. Open in June 2005.
A similar course of action was taken in 1999, the last time the U.S. Open was held in Pinehurst.
There is no public comments session on the agenda for Monday. Hayes said the board could vote to add one to the agenda, but that if one were to take place it would be at the end of the work session.
Other Business
In other business:
The board will be presented with the district priorities for 2004-2005. The priorities were culled from a Community Workshop held in February. They include technology teachers and equipment; a challenging curriculum for all students; facilities needs; and teacher retention and recruitment.
The board will receive an update on Thursday’s policy committee meeting from board member Jennifer Garner.
The board will hear a construction management presentation from Hawthorne. 
