Education

Cabarrus County Schools (CCS)

The budget includes a direct current expense increase of $4,061,842 to cover the rising costs of locally paid staff, facilities and grounds maintenance, technology; expenses. Additionally, funding is being reverted back to operations from deferred maintenance for FY24 at the school districts request. For the FY22 and FY23 years, the County and CCS agreed that operating expense funding for continuation and local supplements would instead go to deferred maintenance projects. The school district used one-time federal funding to cover the gap. Total funding being reverted back to operations is $4,037,596.

Kannapolis City Schools (KCS)

The budget includes a direct current expense increase of $417,357 to cover cost increases including a 0.5% increase to the County-paid local salary supplement for teachers.

CAPITAL OUTLAY

Capital outlay funding is provided to address the minor capital needs of each district. Capital outlay items include buses or other vehicles, technology equipment, building improvements, and acquisition or replacement of furnishings and equipment.

The County issues various types of debt in support of school construction. General Obligation Bonds (GO bonds), Certificates of Participation (COPS) and Limited Obligation Bonds (LOBS) have all been used to finance the acquisition and construction of school capital facilities. Complete details of these long-term obligations can be found in the Debt Service section of this document.

Cabarrus County Government is engaged in a strategic partnership with the Cabarrus County and Kannapolis City School districts for collaborative technology services. An Inter-local agreement between each Local Education Agency (LEA) and Cabarrus County Government was executed in October of 2011. As part of Cabarrus County’s ITS Strategic Plan, Cabarrus County Government invested in two qualified data centers with the flexibility, scalability, support and capacity to offer a managed co-location to the school districts. Kannapolis City Schools continues to contract with the County for technology services.

The table above shows the non-property tax revenues supporting public schools and compares this to the total county expenses for each school district. The sum of current expense, capital outlay and debt service result in a Net County Cost of $105,292,506, including $4,522,536, which is given to Cabarrus Health Alliance for school nurses. For additional years of Net County Cost for public schools, consult the Public-School Funding by Source chart in the Supplemental Information section, which includes data from Fiscal Year 2014 through Recommended FY23.

Maintenance for these school parks are funded by the Active Living and Parks Department and provided through collaboration with Cabarrus County Schools Maintenance staff.

In accordance with a Special Olympics Service Agreement with Cabarrus County Schools, this item provides funding for one full time equivalent position to carry out duties related to the Special Olympics program within the County.

Safety is always at the forefront in Cabarrus County. The county is committed to providing students and staff with a safe learning and working environment. The Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Department works closely with partners in law enforcement to investigate and assess threats to schools. This partnership also provides us with the ability to have school resource officers in our schools.