Bob Shiles

Staff writer

LUMBERTON — The Robeson County Board of Commissioners on Monday will get an update on the county school district’s fiscal year 2011-12 budget.

Johnny Hunt, superintendent of the Public Schools of Robeson County, and Erica Setzer, the district’s chief finance officer, will make the presentation.

Earlier this month, members of the school board were told by Hunt and Setzer that next year’s fiscal budget is going to be bleaker than the current budget. State funding to operate the schools will be less than this year, the school administrators said.

In addition to less state funding, this is also the last year that $4.8 million in federal Edujobs money is available. This is the federal stimulus money that currently pays the salaries of 250 school district employees, Setzer told the school board members.

Setzer earlier this month told The Robesonian if more local funds were available to the schools some of the gaps in the budget could be filled when state funding is reduced.

Other business at Monday’s meeting includes:

n Consideration and passage of a resolution recognizing the Robeson County Partnership for Children’s “Week of the Young Child.”

n A public hearing on a request by Jewel Elizabeth Britt that an .85-acre tract in Orrum be rezoned from Residential Agriculture to Highway Commercial to allow for a feed mill and the sale of retail items in an existing convenience store.

n A public hearing on a request by Jewel Elizabeth Britt for a conditional-use permit to allow an internet cafe with gaming machines in an existing convenience store on an .85-acre tract in a residential agricultural district on Wiregrass Road.

n A public hearing on a conditional-use permit request by Marie Carter, of Parkton, that would allow for the establishment of a family cemetery on an 11-acre tract in a Residential Agricultural District.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the commissioners room of the county administration building on North Elm Street.

Reach staff writer Bob Shiles at 910-272-6117 or bshiles@heartlandpublications.com.