Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools adopts interim budget as district faces state audit and vendor debts

The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Board of Education on June 24 approved an interim budget resolution to allow the district to operate after the fiscal year begins while state and federal funding decisions remain pending.

Superintendent Amanda Moore told the board the resolution is a stopgap while the North Carolina General Assembly completes its budget work and while the district continues reconciling vendor payments, IRS withholding questions and an investigative audit by the North Carolina Auditor’s Office.

Moore said the district faces a multi‑million dollar shortfall traced to overspending in prior periods and late or missing reporting. “Initial review indicates that some payments may have been late, and therefore penalties, interest, fines accrued on those payments,” she said about federal withholding; she said the district was working with an assigned revenue officer at the IRS to reconcile how payments were applied.

The superintendent also described an investigative audit opened in April by the North Carolina…