The Cumberland County Board of Education budget-finance committee approved a budget amendment to reconcile last year’s accounts after local revenue upticks increased the amount owed to charter schools, staff said.

What the committee approved: Staff presented an amendment to increase payments to charter schools to reflect higher-than-projected local revenues, including county appropriation, fines and forfeitures, interest income and fees. “We had a couple upticks in some of these revenue counts. And so with that, we needed to pay more money out to the charter schools than we projected,” a staff member identified as Jay said. The amendment was described in the meeting as intended to close out last year’s accounts ahead of the district audit scheduled in three weeks.

Background and amounts discussed: The staff presentation referenced total charter-school payouts in the prior year in the low single millions. During discussion one board member cited a figure of $3,200,000; at a separate point the presenter referred to roughly $3,000,000 as the total payout last year. Staff said it will provide an exact count of how many charter schools received payments and a detailed breakdown on request. The presenter also noted that future increases in the county appropriation will flow to charter schools as well.

Questions and context: Board members asked how many charter schools in the county receive payments and whether students who attend charter schools in neighboring counties affect the district’s payments. Staff said some students living in Cumberland County attend charter schools in adjacent counties, and the district is billed monthly based on per-pupil calculations reported by those schools.

Decision versus discussion: The committee voted to approve the 22425 budget amendment as presented. Staff said the auditors will arrive in about three weeks and will present an audit report at the December meeting.