On April 8, Thomas Kranz, the chief financial officer of Winston-Salem/Forsyth County schools, announced his resignation during a school board meeting. The superintendent of the school district, Tricia McManus, released a statement in response:

“Mr. Kranz came to the district three years ago with more than 40 years of credible and reputable service as a CPA in the corporate world and chief operations officer, finance officer, and interim superintendent in public schools […] Finding a replacement will be a difficult task. I wish him well in his retirement after so many years of dedicated service.”

Kranz will remain in his role until June 30. 

This news comes as a result of a recent district audit, which revealed the district overspent its budget by $16 million during the 2023-2024 school year. During the board’s meeting a week prior, members of the team responsible for allocating funds presented findings that the district spent $10 million more on payroll, increasing from an $83 million budget to $93 million during that school year. Additional overspending occurred in employee benefits and charter school payments.

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In November 2023, the school board voted to use around $2.4 million from savings for teacher raises and bonuses. Board member Robert Barr, during the April 1 meeting, questioned this decision.

“Do we not have something in place to say, ‘the board may want this, but based on our budget, we can’t afford it’?” Barr said. 

This comes at a time when the district has been performing relatively well, making significant improvements to its students’ learning outcomes. 

According to a 2022-2023 accountability report on the school district, WS/FCS went from having 35 failing schools in 2022 to 29 in 2023. Moreover, F-rated schools dropped from 22 to 16, and D-rated schools dropped from 23 to 22. The district’s cohort graduation rate also reached its peak at 87%, according to the report.

Kranz’s resignation has serious implications for the school district moving forward. To account for the budgeting error, school officials proposed reducing 81 central office positions. Under this plan, 33 employees’ salaries would be reduced, 9 would be laid off, 8 would be transferred and 31 positions would be terminated.

In addition to reducing central office positions, the superintendent plans to make the following near-term changes: freeze hiring and discretionary spending (exceptions for essential purchases), restrict summer school funding to state resources only, discontinue long-term substitute positions, eliminate take-home vehicles and out-of-state travel expenses and limit travel between districts.

McManus is projecting these near-term changes to save around $8 million for the school district. 

For deeper cuts expected to save the district $16 million, McManus proposed the following for the 2025-2026 school year: provide furloughs for the executive leadership team, overhaul and restructure the Virtual Academy, merge Kingswood School and Main Street Academy and terminate the district’s contract with ESS, the provider of substitute teachers and teaching assistants.

“This is not the place we wanted to be in,” McManus said. “And I apologize that we’re even having this conversation today and that we didn’t predict this two years ago and make these changes then.”

As the district confronts tough decisions and changing leadership, the road ahead will be challenging. Kranz’s resignation marks the end of a period during which the district achieved significant academic progress, despite facing financial difficulties. Now, school officials must find a way to restore financial stability while maintaining the momentum in student performance.