By Mackenzie Acker and Jackson Colo

Features Editor and Editor-in-Chief

    In May 2025, a Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School’s budget update revealed the school system was predicted to fall $42 million over the 2024-2025 budget ending in June. Shortly thereafter, Superintendent Tricia McManus filed for retirement. Following McManus’ retirement, the media and the public swarmed to understand the situation. Yet, despite months of audits and introspection, new causes behind the deficits were still being discovered even as the school year began. 

    “It was like the perfect storm,” WS/FCS Board of Education member Leah Crowley said. “There were so many different factors leading up to it.”

    Hundreds of journalists, students, staff, and taxpayers across Forsyth County have tried to pin down the factors that could have led to such a huge deficit. But reflection from members of the WS/FCS Board of Education spoke to a couple of distinct missteps. 

    According to Crowley, a large contributing factor was the former computer software system that managed the WS/FCS budget information. This system dated back to the 1980s and was so old that financial reports had to be manually produced, meaning that the information had to be copied down by hand. This led to a devastating mistake, in which an individual copying down information left out a $12 million expense for paying substitute teachers. Missteps made by Thomas Kranz, the former Chief Financial Officer (CFO), were also said to have contributed to deficits.

    “Many times the question was asked to our CFO, ‘But do we have the money to pay for this?’, and his answer to a lot of things was, ‘Yeah, we can absorb it,’” Crowley said. “But, absorbing is not a financial term. So where is the money coming from?”

    Heavy blame has been cast on the former CFO and Superintendent, with both leaving shortly after the crisis became public. Many are also pointing fingers at the Board of Education itself. However, a financial crisis this large did not stem from the acts of a few members. This deficit built up over multiple cycles of members, multiple terms, and multiple financial mistakes. 

    Board members have also voiced that the information presented to them while voting on policies was not always accurate.  

    “We’re absolutely responsible for these decisions,” Crowley said. “But you can only make decisions with accurate information, not when things are either absent, you don’t even have a report, or it’s inaccurate.”

    Looking back, additional drivers for the deficit are not all as obvious. The state legislature’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic turned out to be a blow to the budget. In an effort to help school districts, the state paused the amount of funds given to each district despite lower enrollment for four years during the pandemic. This, in turn, made it harder for the district to adjust its budget after four years of leniency. Even with drastically lower enrollment after those years, WS/FCS failed to compensate by cutting staff.

    “We definitely felt like we still needed all these people in school buildings, so it would have been hard to cut people, but that’s exactly what we should have been doing,” Crowley said.

    After McManus’ departure, the WS/FCS Board of Education selected Catty Quiroz Moore to serve as the district’s Interim Superintendent. Moore currently serves as a member at-large of the North Carolina State Board of Education and recently served as Interim Superintendent of Durham Public Schools, assisting the district in times of financial crisis, similar to that of WS/FCS. 

    “I’m honored to step into this role for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools,” Moore said in a district release. “I’m excited to work alongside our dedicated staff, board members, and the community to establish a clear path forward.”

    Following Moore’s induction, the debt continued to rise, ultimately reaching $46 million. In addition to the increased debt, the WS/FCS Board of Education continued to struggle with balancing the current 2025-2026 budget that began in early July. So, Moore proposed a plan: a reduction in force (RIF). 

    “I acknowledge that this recommendation will impact lives, and it will change lives,” Moore, prior to the RIF’s approval, said. “It will cause uncertainty, anxiety, anger — a myriad of reactions, all valid. And yet it is, when we look at the need, a fiscal need for the district. We cannot balance the budget without further reductions.”

    Moore’s plan was constructed on the fact that payroll and staff benefits make up 85 percent of the district’s budget, an unfortunate reality that could not go unnoticed. The RIF approved the elimination of 344 employee positions, a reduction in pay for 289 employees, demotions for 51 employees, and furloughs for 1200 employees across elementary, middle, and high schools. In response, high schoolers around the district joined in protest of the employment cuts. 

    “We want students to feel seen and heard, and to allow them to express their views,” Moore said in response to the walkouts. “We also have an obligation to ensure a secure and orderly educational environment…Please know, we remain fully committed to ensuring all our students continue to receive the care, attention, and services they need to thrive.”

    These student-led protests displayed the students’ displeasure, showing teachers that they are valued within Forsyth County. However, there is more that students can do. Change can still be done within the state legislature to relieve Forsyth County of debt and allocate more resources throughout the county.

    “The solution is in Raleigh; that’s who pays the salaries,” Crowley said. “What I would love to see is a student march in Raleigh or a student phone or email campaign to our state legislators to help them understand what is happening in our schools today.” 

    Even after the district-wide protesting, the RIF went into effect on Friday, September 12th. Staff members were notified of changes in employment periodically in the weeks leading up to the 12th via email. 222 staff members received word that their positions were being eliminated–the reduction was less than the district had originally expected in August. 

    “We were told there was going to be a reduction in force, and that we would be notified by a specific date,” an anonymous elementary educator said. “Then they tell us, ‘we made a mistake, and we didn’t notify everybody, so it’s going to take another week.’ Then we found out some people got an email, and it was wrong. Finally, some people started to think that they were safe, but were notified that they were losing their jobs. They left in tears that day.”

    The Pine Whispers reached out to both Interim Superintendent Moore and the Main Office for comment but received no response. 

   The North Carolina Board of Education continues to put pressure on WS/FCS, even as the district continues to evaluate options to repay the debt. The State Superintendent, Maurice Green, recommends that the state board find a compromise between assisting the district and clearly outlining that overspending state funds will not be tolerated. 

    In the meantime, Interim Superintendent Moore recommends that the WS/FCS Board of Education create an alternative audit committee to review the district’s annual independent audit and advise the Board through further financial decisions. 

    The Interim Superintendent is set to leave WS/FCS at the end of November, leaving the Board of Education to search for a permanent replacement. With so many unanswered questions, pointed fingers, and uncertainty of what’s to come, the future of the district remains a mystery.