Jackson County residents will avoid a tax hike for one more year, if commissioners choose to adopt the proposed budget for 2015-16.

Swain County schools are requesting an additional $250,000 from the county commissioners to cover some much-needed building maintenance projects at all four schools.

A bigger number of Jackson County students could be subject to random drug testing if a proposed policy change being considered by the school board gets approved.

As the Macon County budget process gets under way, education spending will be one of the meatier items up for discussion.

Leaking roofs, technology needs and impending state cuts prompted Jackson County Schools to put out a hefty ask to the county at the beginning of its budget talks, but it’s looking like the school system will wind up with only about half of the original $4.8 million in new funding it asked for.

Haywood County Schools will cut its budget by $900,000 next year, plus tap its cash reserves to the tune of $1.5 million to soften the blow of what would otherwise be even larger cuts.

“This is a draft. We may have to go back and cut more,” Haywood Superintendent Anne Garrett said, when presenting a summary of the school system budget to county commissioners last month.

Haywood School Superintendent Anne Garrett came up with a novel approach for predicting how many students a new charter school will siphon out of the public school system.

Haywood County Schools have been losing students slowly but steadily over the past decade. Despite high academic performance, the school system has 500 fewer students.

Where did they go? Why? Will the decline continue?

• Case #1: The homeschool factor
• Case #2: Recession drives working families to leave Haywood
• Case #3: Private schools only a minor league player
• Case #4: New charter school makes a trial run in Haywood
• Haywood Schools grapple with enrollment wildcard

Voters could see more Ds and Rs on their election ballot in 2016 if Republicans push through legislation to make local school board and statewide judicial races partisan.

Haywood County Schools will get a modest 2 percent increase each year for the next three years in its student per capita funding from the county.