Education

Cabarrus County, along with the State of North Carolina and school boards, strive to provide a free, equal and quality education for every child in the state. According to the North Carolina state constitution, the County must maintain facility requirements for the public education system. Local revenues are also used to supplement the state’s contribution for public school operations. Lottery proceeds and sales tax dedicated for school capital fund a portion of school capital needs.

Cabarrus County provides funding to the following:

• Public Schools, which include:
• Cabarrus County Schools (CCS)
• Kannapolis City Schools (KCS)
• Charter Schools
• Other related agencies
• Rowan Cabarrus Community College

Although Cabarrus County is only responsible for distributing funds, the County prides itself on the relationships built with each school system. While the school boards decide how to spend county funding, the school districts and the County work together to make sure needs are met. For example, each year Cabarrus County Schools hosts a series of workshops where members of the school board, school administration, teachers, parents, County Commissioners and staff and other key stakeholders meet to discuss and prioritize requests for the upcoming year.

The remainder of this section covers the current expense, highlights and/or significant modifications, capital outlay, debt service and county server space for public schools and provides an overview of funding for RCCC.

CURRENT EXPENSE

Students in Cabarrus County are served by two school districts – Cabarrus County Schools (CCS) and Kannapolis City Schools (KCS) and several charter schools. Current expense funding assists each school system with paying salaries and benefits for locally funded positions, utilities, building and grounds maintenance, and other operating expenses. Expansion funding, if provided, allows each school system to improve public education above current funding levels. Requests for continuation funding are the top priority as this funding allows the schools to continue operations of all current facilities and funds new facilities opening during the fiscal year.

*Money is passed through each school district to the charter schools.

Current expense funding for schools is based on Average Daily Membership (ADM), which reflects the average number of students in classes. Certified estimates from the state are used by the county per General Statue 115C-430. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction uses the higher of the first two months’ prior year ADM and projects growth for the next school year. This information is obtained from the Principal’s Monthly Report, and data supplied by the local superintendent regarding out-of-county students, and transfers between local school units. The ADM estimate used was 39,862, an increase of 1,034 students from the prior year. The ADM estimate used for charter schools was 2,864 a decrease of 102 students from the prior year. The county is required by law to allocate an equal share to each school system based on their share of the ADM.

For FY24 Cabarrus County School’s ADM is 35,784; Kannapolis City School’s is 4,078; CCS Charter's is 2,538 and KCS Charter's is 326. Payment for charter school students is a pass through from each school district to charter schools based on ADM per pupil. Additional funds are held in contingency to fund any unanticipated increase of charter school students.