The Chapel Hill- Carrboro City Schools Board of Education may be making big cuts to gifted specialists in classrooms.
Thursday night, the board will consider a budget request to Orange County Commissioners that includes a reduction of $902,852.
More than half of that money will come out of the gifted specialist program to assist teachers with academically gifted students.
The reduction would mean that each elementary school would have just one full-time equivalent gifted specialist; and each middle school would have half of that.
Gifted specialists already employed at Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools would not be terminated, but would be re-assigned.
Chapel-Hill-Carrboro Schools began the 2014-2015 budget process in a $2.2 million hole.
The fund balance used for three years for operational expenditures is now gone; and the General Assembly has cut back on a significant amount of revenue.
The school system’s central office will absorb $100,000 in reductions. Half of that will come out of salaries.
Startup funding for Northside Elementary will be reduced by $25,000, now that the school is open and operating.
Reserve funds for North Carolina Virtual Public School will be reduced by $150,000, after the school system took a hard look at online enrollment numbers.
The meeting is at 7 p.m. at Lincoln Center, located at 750 South Merritt Mill Road in Chapel Hill.
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