Pender mediation cost taxpayers $118,000
By Bill Walsh
StarNews Correspondent
PENDER COUNTY, NC (StarNews) — The Pender County Board of Education was dismayed over what school officials identified as a $2.6 million operational shortfall when the county commissioners approved the fiscal 2015-16 budget in June — dismayed enough to force the commissioners into mediation in an effort to get more money.
That effort failed to secure the school system any additional operating funds and, with the bills now coming due, the school board’s budget shortfall is closer to $2.7 million. The school board owes the Raleigh-based law firm Schwartz & Shaw a little more than $75,000 for its services during the mediation process. The school system also owes its half of the mediator’s expenses of a little more than $10,800.
The school system released its numbers this week after the StarNews filed a Freedom of Information Act request.
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