GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

S	1 

SENATE BILL 380

Short Title:  GPAC/Local Flexibility/School Funds.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senator Martin of Guilford.
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Referred to:  Government Performance Audit.
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February 24, 1993

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO IMPLEMENT A RECOMMENDATION OF THE GOVERNMENT PERFORMANCE AUDIT COMMITTEE TO IMPROVE EFFICIENCY IN SCHOOL OPERATIONS BY SIMPLIFYING FUNDING FORMULAS AND EMPOWERING LOCAL SCHOOL ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS TO MANAGE FOR RESULTS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  (a) The General Assembly finds that it is appropriate to consolidate major nonteaching funding categories in the Public School Fund; therefore, the following existing funding categories in the Public School Fund are combined into the following  categories:
(1)	School Administration	School Administration
Finance Officers

(2)	Noncertified Personnel	Clerical Assistants
Teacher Assistants
Custodians

(3)	Support Services	Summer School/Remediation
Dropout Prevention
Community Schools
Duty-Free Period
Sports Medicine
Child Nutrition
Staff Development
Textbooks
Consolidated Allotment
For budgetary reporting and accounting purposes, the local school administrative units shall continue to provide expenditure data at such detailed levels as required by the State Board of Education.  Presentation, control, and reporting of salary and salary-related objects of expenditure shall be in accordance with applicable statutes and the directives of the Director of the Budget.
(b) The General Assembly encourages local school administrative units to become more efficient in their current operations by (i) implementing the recommendations in the State Auditor's performance audits, (ii) using the funds in the combined funding category created in subsection (a) of this section to contract out for services where private sector resources are available, and (iii) working with other local school administrative units to deliver shared services.
(c)	The General Assembly finds that because of the increased management flexibility provided to local school administrative units in this section, local school administrative units can operate more efficiently; therefore, appropriations to the combined funding categories created in subsection (a) of this section are decreased by five percent (5%).  As an incentive to increase this efficiency, the local school administrative units may, notwithstanding any other provision of law, retain at the end of each fiscal year twenty-five percent (25%) of the unencumbered and unexpended funds in the combined funding categories created in subsection (a) of this section.
Sec. 2. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Education, the sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for the 1993-94 fiscal year and the sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for the 1994-95 fiscal year to fund model programs to increase efficiency in local school administrative unit operations and to provide incentive awards to local school administrative units that operate efficiently.  The funds shall be awarded by the State Board of Education based upon proposals submitted by the local school administrative units or by multiple local governments in a single county or adjoining counties.
Sec. 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1993.