Breaking News: School Board adds “personnel action” to agenda after marathon closed session, will resume meeting Wednesday

The Wayne County Board of Education held another marathon closed session Tuesday and reconvened just before 11 p.m. — only to recess the session until Wednesday at 5:30.

No decision was made on the 2020-21 budget — nor was there discussion about graduation or the abrupt resignation of Finance Officer Michael Hayes.

The board amended its agenda to add three items to take up when it reconvenes: “confidential personnel” matters, “personnel action” and “a response to the audit” (presented to board members Tuesday).

The move comes after an independent auditor reported that the district’s general fund balance has been on a downward trend since 2015, the year Superintendent Dr. Michael Dunsmore was hired.

Diana Hardy, a CPA and audit partner in the Greensboro office of Rives & Associates LLP, said the WCPS general fund balance stands at -$3.6 million.

“A fund balance is really just your equity. … That is truly your net worth,” she said. “That negative ($3.6 million) is what the (school district) is considered to be worth.”

The report also revealed a multi-million dollar transfer of funds from the school’s food service account to its general fund.

Dunsmore denied knowledge of it Tuesday and said he did not know when it was taken out or whether or not it had been paid back.

Dunsmore told the board at its last session that he had been “left in the dark” about some aspects of the district’s finances.

But the transfer of funds and the negative fund balance were not the only revelations of consequence that came out during the meeting.

The superintendent also said WCPS would “need some help” in response to a question posed by board chairman Chris West about whether the district had the finances to cover the June 15 stipend for teachers.

Here’s what else we know:

School board members were supposed to hear a presentation from Dunsmore about the budget May 27, but that never happened. Instead, they went into a four-hour closed session to discuss “personnel” and then turned their focus to graduation.

Dunsmore said he wanted to wait to discuss the spending plan because he had additional information to present to the board about cuts and additions made in the last few years.

But May 28, several sources contacted the New Old North alleging that questions surrounding how the district ended up $5 million in the red had resulted in resignations of several administrative team members, including Hayes and Dunsmore.

WCPS communications director Ken Derksen and West said they had no knowledge of a change in Dunsmore’s job status, but an hour later, Derksen confirmed that Hayes had resigned. He declined to go into detail, citing privacy laws.

The board reconvened May 29 and Dunsmore presented his budget recommendations, which included staff cuts and increased class sizes.

He did not address rumors surrounding his employment status or the resignation of Hayes, although he did refer to being “left in the dark” about some aspects of the budget and the district’s financial picture.

Dunsmore has seemingly had a rough go of it since 2018, as his commitment to the district was questioned by the public — and some board members — when reports surfaced that he had applied for a job in Duval County, Florida, a move that led to a contentious vote over whether or not to extend his contract.

His contract would end up being extended by a 4-3 measure later in the year — Jennifer Strickland did not vote, so she was counted as the deciding “yes.”

Then, this fall, Dunsmore applied for another job in the Sunshine State.

Here is the application he submitted in October, where he said he was “looking now for a new situation” and a “system and area that I want to call home now and for the future.”

For more on this story as it develops — including a full report on the district’s proposed 2020-21 budget and an analysis of the audit presented by Hardy — follow the New Old North here and on our Facebook and Instagram pages @newoldnorth