WINSTON-SALEM (November 16, 2025) – Last spring, we learned of vast overspending by the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools.

The total amount of overspending was unknown. The school district’s finance officer and superintendent retired abruptly, and Dr. Catty Moore was hired as the interim superintendent.

At the Oct. 30 School Board meeting, the school district’s auditor, Forvis Mazars, shared their first analysis. It indicated that the district’s overspending totaled $45.5 million.  The overspending exhausted the district’s $12 million fund balance[DR1]  – its savings – and used almost $7 million of restricted funds. The negative fund balance in restricted funds will have to be paid back over time, but no interest or penalties will be incurred.

The actual debt faced by the school district was $26.5 million. This amount was reduced by $13 million by renegotiating with one vendor and using some local capital funds that the county agreed to release which reduced the debt to $13.5 million.

Also at the Oct. 30 school board meeting, the School Board adopted its final budget for the 2025-26 school year – a budget that was almost 7% less than last school year. To accomplish this reduction, many administrative positions were eliminated, the terms of employment for other positions were reduced, and 638 central office employees experienced furloughs of 5-12 days this year.

Shortly after the schools opened this year, a large teacher reduction in force was implemented that affected over 300 positions. All of our hearts ache for the many dedicated professionals who, due to no fault of their own, have experienced dramatic disruptions to their lives and careers. These staff reductions resulted from over-staffing in previous years when school enrollments declined and will not be restored in the future.

The publicity surrounding such a financial crisis spread across NC and to surrounding states. For a city and county trying to attract new jobs, this news overshadowed the many positive reasons that we all choose to live in our great community. In North Carolina, school districts depend on county, state, and federal funds; the only way for a NC school to address deficit spending is to (1) receive additional funds from one or more of these three sources, (2) sell property, and/or (3) reduce costs.

This school year, Forsyth County will provide $180 million in local funding to the school district. While there are those who believe that the County should provide more money, it is important to understand that in 2024-25, local per-pupil funding in Forsyth County was $3690, slightly less than the average of the four largest urban counties (Forsyth, Guilford, Mecklenburg and Wake, but $25 more per pupil than Mecklenburg County’s local per-pupil funding for schools. Forsyth County’s per-capita tax base is considerably lower than Mecklenburg County’s, which demonstrates Forsyth County’s strong support for public education.

We are fortunate that this community has a long tradition of significant philanthropic giving from local businesses, foundations, and individuals. Two of our community leaders, Don Flow and Paul Fulton, met with the School Board Chair, the interim superintendent, and me to better understand (1) how the overspending occurred, (2) what has been done to right-size this year’s budget, and (3) how can we insure that this over-spending never happens again.

Once satisfied with the answers to these questions, Don Flow hosted a dinner to encourage local community organizations and individuals to raise money to help retire the district’s outstanding

debt. This fall, the Winston-Salem Foundation generously created and supported three funds to support the school district – one to support students, another to support teachers, and the third to support debt retirement.

To date, $3.4 million has been deposited in the Foundation’s debt-retirement fund and an additional $2.2 million dollars has been pledged. During the planning for the fund-raising dinner, the Forsyth County Commissioners passed a resolution to forgive a dollar of the school system’s $5 million debt to the County for every dollar raised privately to retire debt. Once pledges are deposited with the Winston-Salem Foundation, the County debt will be satisfied.

Applying the success of the fundraising dinner and the elimination of the County’s debt, the remaining school district debt is approximately $2.9 million. (The $13.5 million debt total indicated above reduced by $5.6 in private fundraising and $5 million in county debt is $2.9 million.)

Our community rallying around public education in its time of need sends an important message about how much the citizens of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County are able to successfully respond when our children face a crisis.

To finish the job, I would encourage more donors to contribute to any of the three funds created by the Winston-Salem Foundation. Please visit their website allinforourschools.org.

Don Martin, former superintendent of the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, is now Chair of the Forsyth County Commissioners, serving his third term. This appeared first in the Winston-Salem Journal and The (Greensboro) News & Record, and is reprinted here with their permission.