This joint letter from the State Board of Education and the Department of Public Instruction to the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School system was made public today.

As reported by both WXII.com and MyFox8.com, “This communication serves as a warning that you must meet your legal and fiscal oversight obligations to avoid financial sanctions and additional oversight of the district by the State Board of Education and DPI.”

This is on the tail of an overdue budget audit that revealed a second 10-plus million dollar shortfall in the budget that will have to be “rectified” by altering future expenditures.

ESSER funds have been ended.

On the federal level there is a push to eliminate the Department of Education.

Here in this state, there is a General Assembly led by a gerrymandered group bent on privatizing all of public education with its ignorance of the LEANDRO decision and the expansion of vouchers to wealthy people.

As a teacher in this school system, a parent of a special needs child with an IEP in a public school that is now losing more teacher assistants, and a voter who loudly spoke in favor of some of those who serve on the school board and the county commission, saying that I am disappointed is an understatement. My workplace and my child’s education will be feeling quick and direct effects of what seems to be problems not of our creation.

So will our entire community. As was stated in the MyFox8 report:

“Parents, educators and staff members at the district are bracing for the impact while many are left wondering how this could happen.“

Earlier in this very school year, we did not have an audit report showing a shortfall, a resignation of the top finance official in the school system, another announcement of a superintendent leaving, nor a constricting formula system that the county commission wants to place on local funding efforts for schools.

But here we are. With a deadline from the state to show more fiscal oversight.

It may be easy for the school board and the county commission to scapegoat officials who are leaving with the blame for what is happening. It may be easy for the county commission to leverage this fragile situation and attempt to force WSFCS to accept a finance plan while scoring points on property tax rates after rising property valuations. It might be easy for the school board to simply accept whatever the county offers.

As a teacher and parent in this school system, I did not vote for people on both the school board and county commission to seek the “easy” solution. I need them to make the hard decisions with transparency and integrity.

What we as teachers and educators (certified and classified) do every day in our schools is already hard. Right now, you are making it even harder.