Signing Ceremony for the Public School Funding Formula

Published on May 07, 2025

A historic signing ceremony for the public school funding formula among Clinton City Schools, Sampson County Schools and Sampson County Government was held at the Sampson County Board of Commissioners Meeting on May 5th, 2025.

Sampson County has a statutory obligation to fund both the annual operating budgets of the two public school systems (current expense budgets) as well as the ongoing maintenance and construction of school facilities (capital budgets). To date there has been no jointly adopted mechanism by which Sampson County Government and the two school districts in the county have been funded. This means that the Boards of Education submit annual budgets, the county decides on a funding level, and any disputes between the governing bodies would be handled in accordance with North Carolina law. This would mean tremendous legal expense and is a situation that all parties would desire to avoid. Moreover, all parties have recognized that education plays a vital role in the community. It is a cornerstone of the quality of life of Sampson County. Public school systems create the workforce of the area. They are vital to economic development. When industry and commercial enterprises seek new locations they examine the quality of life of the community, including the system of education. The public school systems also provide a community focus through all the extra-curricular activities of the school systems including their athletic programs. Despite these facts, over time the per pupil appropriation of the county for Sampson County Schools has fallen to the level of 104th lowest out of the 115 local education agencies in the State of North Carolina.

Recognizing this as a need that must be fixed, the Sampson County Board of Commissioners placed the adoption of a school funding formula as their number one goal for public education in their goal setting resolution of 2025. Through many meetings between the Interim County Manager and the Superintendents of School, a funding formula has been created. The formula sets the future funding of both school districts at 25% of all sales and property tax revenues received by the county, not otherwise earmarked for the school systems through state law.

At their meeting of May 1st the Clinton City Schools Board of Education was slated to consider adoption of the formula. Additionally, at a specially called meeting of the Sampson County Board of Education on May 5th, the Sampson Board of Education also considered adoption of the formula.

Creating a jointly-adopted school funding formula creates budgetary certainty. The full and complete funding for this formula will be included in the Interim County Manager's proposed Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal.

Details of the funding formula, please refer to the document below:

Funding-Formula.pdf(PDF, 1005KB)