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FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. —

Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools just revealed that the district's financial shortfall is now estimated to be around $42 million for this fiscal year alone.

In March, former CFO Thomas Kranz estimated that the district was in a $8 million shortfall for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.

In April, district leaders hired a financial firm to get a clearer estimate of the district’s financial troubles. The consultants started working on April 29.

After almost a month of work, the district says the consultants found that $8 million shortfall figure to be an underestimation.

On Friday, the district updated the school community, revealing that the shortfall now totals about $42 million for this fiscal year alone.

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It is still unclear exactly how the district managed to overspend that amount of money.

District leaders said they plan to use all of their unrestricted fund balance to help cover the expenses and are working with the county on repayment options.

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The district still needs to find $13 million for next year, having already cut $23 million to do so.

The district has promised to provide up-to-date information regarding its financial situation.

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Backstage in the dark, a lone figure dressed in black focuses intently on a thick script with hundreds of “cues.” She stands serenely in a puddle of pale light and whispers into a headset microphone, “Go!”

Light floods the stage. Actors scramble to enter and exit portals whose doors slam with loud cracks. Voices shout over one another – now wheedling, now lustful, now angry, now afraid. The play – “Unnecessary Farce” at Little Theatre of Winston-Salem – courts chaos.

But fear not! For the next two hours or so, the unsung hero of live theater will hold the space for a smooth and successful show.

The stage manager is in charge.

The job includes nearly every aspect of a theatrical production or event. Stage managers work closely with the director, the creative team, the production team, the cast, and the crew, from auditions to the final performance, explains Nikki Hyde, an assistant professor at UNC School of the Arts who teaches stage management in the School of Design and Production.

“Usually, the lead stage manager is the person who calls the cues, meaning that any time the lights change or anytime you hear a new sound cue, the stage manager is the person saying, ‘Go!,’ to an operator who is making that happen and coordinating all those things in performance,” Hyde says.

They manage schedules and day-to-day operations in rehearsal and during production. Once the show is up and running, they are the lead person for the maintenance of the show, so if any changes are made, they are the person who gives notes to the performers or the technical team. They keep the show looking, sounding, and feeling as the director and the creative team intended.

If the play is new and gets picked up to be done again in another theater, the stage manager's paperwork and documentation will move on with the show to its next production.

Hyde, who has spent her career stage managing theater, opera and special events, explains the most important skills for the job.

“I always start with a love of what we do,” Hyde says. “It’s a baseline. Anybody who works in theater in any capacity has got to love it.”

After love, other abilities that naturally flow from the scope of the job are good organization and communication skills (written and verbal) and adaptability.

Kathy Cissna, Elizabeth Rief, and Brittany Giles-Jones are three of the people who embody those skills in the Winston-Salem area.

How to be a stage manager

Kathy Cissna grew up in “a suburb of a suburb” of Pittsburgh and got her bachelor’s degree in theater from a small liberal arts college in Northwest Pennsylvania. She started out acting but soon found that she liked being backstage.

“As a stage manager, you get to be involved in all aspects of productions,” she says. “My dad was involved in local community theater. He was a singer and also did backstage tech work. I tagged along.”

The first show that Cissna stage-managed, “Born Yesterday,” was a trial by fire.

“They (the community theater) borrowed a whole bunch of fur coats for the cast from local fur shop,” Cissna says. “They installed an incredible security system. We put padlocks on the theater, and I was the person with the keys. They gave me a whole lot of responsibility, and I rose to the occasion.”

She’s still taking on that kind of responsibility 50 years later, in between acting roles, working at Reynolds American and raising a family.

Brittany Giles-Jones, who lives in Stone Mountain, Ga., and frequently comes to Winston-Salem to stage manage shows for N.C. Black Repertory Co., also grew up in theater.

“I grew up in the arts,” she says. “Then I went to college. I didn’t want to go the starving-artist route, so I went more into management, into being a talent agent.”

But her heart kept pulling her back into live theatre. “I went to see a client in a show, and I started trying to get back into the theater,” Giles-Jones says.

She started stage-managing at Horizon Theatre, a highly regarded theater in Atlanta. From there, she went to Juilliard School in New York as a stage-management intern. She continued to work in stage management, joined a union, and even did a stint as assisting managing director in the Drama Department at Juilliard.

In an example of how experience as a stage manager can translate to other jobs, Giles-Jones is currently working an emergency manager and pursuing a doctorate degree in the humanities with a focus on disaster research.

A “yearbook person” in high school, Elizabeth Rief discovered the joys of theater at Wake Forest University.

“A friend was working on ‘Our Town.’ I went and talked to John Friedenberg,” Rief says. “He said, ‘We need someone to stage manage,’ and I jumped in.” Friedenberg was the head of the theater department at Wake from 1988 to 2020.

“‘Our Town’ had all the things: set changes, complex costume changes,” Rief says. “I got exposed to all the technologies – props, construction, carpentry, sound, lights - so I really loved it.”

She loved it so much that she changed her major from Latin and history to theater. She and her classmates bonded to the extent that they functioned as a production company putting together their senior shows.

While she was trying to figure out how to stay in Winston-Salem after graduation instead of returning to Florida, where she is from, Rief got her first job at Little Theatre of Winston-Salem. That was “Guys and Dolls” in 1994. She has stage-managed a show for them every year for the past 30 years. She’s also worked at Theatre Alliance of Winston-Salem, Spirit Gum Theatre, Paper Lantern and more.

“What I love about stage managing is that you are the person who’s developing all the components of the production, from welcoming people to auditions to the last performance,” Rief says. “I think of it as a wagon wheel; you are the center, and everybody is connected to you, and you are taking information in and sending it out to wherever it needs to go.

Magic time

“Big River,” a musical, contains a sequence of cues that allows a raft to break free of its moorings and take Huckleberry Finn and Jim on an adventure down the Mississippi River.

“You have crews standing by to release raft, you’ve got actors in the wings, you’ve got somebody getting ready to release the fog. You’ve got 10 things that have to happen in perfect sequence, and it did,” Rief says. “It remains one of my favorite moments in theater. When I see other productions, I wait for that moment.

“All I did was say, ‘Go!’ and they all worked together to make something happen. You can’t beat that moment when you know you have the right people to do the job, and you know that it is all going to work.”

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WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — The budget challenges facing Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools appear to be growing.

District leaders reported last week that it faces a $42 million deficit.

They made a point at tonight's board meeting, saying it's at least $42 million, meaning the number could be higher.

Tensions ran high at Tuesday's Winston-Salem Forsyth County Schools board of education meeting.

Some board members said someone has to pay. Both Councilmembers Susan Miller and Robert Barr called for Superintendent Tricia McManus' termination.

"I would like permission to make a motion to terminate Superintendent McManus," said one board member.

Some board members think the situation requires accountability.

"I say this with all due respect, the superintendent should not be allowed to retire, but I'm gonna say this and I'm gonna get booed, the superintendent should get terminated because of where we are financially."

The board chair said it was too late to introduce a motion like that.

Another board member criticized his colleagues and accused them of playing politics

"I am appalled that you would say this is not political grandstanding. This is not about party. It is. You've been listening to what you've been told by some folks in your party."

He said the board has had plenty of opportunities to call for action in closed sessions.

He accused them of trying to score points by doing so publicly.

McManus, who's set to retire next month, didn't address the call to fire her in the meeting tonight.

She said a lot about the budget, though.

"There are many things, that as I'm meeting with the consultants and I'm meeting with teams of people that we are uncovering, that have just been practiced for a long time, that didn't add to this right now but it is a compilation of year after year of things being added and not enough being taken away."

Ideas for cost-cutting include increasing class size by one or two students, borrowing from other funds, and asking staff to contribute to their dental plan.

Right now, it's free.

One idea is to ask them to chip in $25 a month.

McManus said they could also consider cutting jobs or positions.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools might also seek a one-time payment of $32.1 million from Forsyth County, to be paid back on terms agreed to by both the school board and the Board of Commissioners.

A North Carolina mom dies at graduation just moments before she could watch her daughter walk across the stage at Parkland High School’s ceremony in Winston-Salem.

Winston-Salem teacher assaulted by Parkland High School student identified as social studies teacher

Jean Byrd, originally from Philadelphia, was walking through the parking lot of Joel Coliseum on Friday, May 23, to attend her daughter Meilean’s high school graduation. Tragically, just steps away from the entrance, Byrd collapsed and became unresponsive.

Her son, Marquan Matthews, was at the ceremony and performed CPR on their mother while his sister Meilean walked across the stage inside, unaware of what was unfolding. According to the family’s GoFundMe page, Jean Byrd passed away about an hour later—only 200 feet away from the venue.

WXII reports that after Meilean sat back down, a guidance counselor gently escorted her from the ceremony and was taken to the hospital to be with her mother.

Philadelphia’s Overseer Tyriek White, Infamous for Going Off On Bishop, Passes Away

Byrd was deeply loved, and her family now hopes to honor her final wish of being buried in her hometown of Philadelphia. The family has launched a GoFundMe to support their family.

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. —

Sedge Garden Elementary is getting a new principal, following allegations of mistreatment of students in the school's special needs pre-K program. Those allegations involved several staff members.

Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools named Donald Wyatt to the role, who is currently the principal of Mount Tabor High School. He first joined the district as a teacher at Union Cross Elementary in 2010. From there, he became the principal at East Forsyth Middle School and served as the assistant principal and principal of Sedge Garden Elementary before becoming principal at Mount Tabor High School.

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The district provided the following information about the other principals named to their new roles:

Following information provided by Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools

Matt Dixson has experience in roles at the elementary, middle, and district levels. Most recently, he served as principal of Meadowlark Middle School, where he was recognized as a 2023 Principal of the Year nominee. He has also held the position of chief human resources officer for WS/FCS. He began his career in the classroom, teaching third and fourth grades before moving into administration.

Mr. Dixson holds an Education Specialist degree and administrative licensure from Appalachian State University, along with a Master of Arts in teaching from Salem College and a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University.

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Stephanie Jordan currently serves as principal of Wiley Magnet Middle School and has previously led Frank Morgan Elementary School and Hanford Dole Elementary School in Rowan County. Under her leadership, schools have consistently met or exceeded growth expectations, and she was recognized as a Top 5 Finalist for WS/FCS Principal of the Year in both 2022 and 2023.

Dr. Jordan holds a doctorate in educational leadership from High Point University and has served in various leadership roles across the district, including president of the Forsyth Principal Association.

Colin Tribby currently serves as principal of Ward Elementary School, where he oversaw a 13-point increase in the school’s overall composite score. He began his administrative career serving as a principal intern at Wiley Middle School. He was assistant principal at The Downtown School, R.J. Reynolds High School, and Glenn High School, and principal at Easton Elementary School and in Davidson County at Thomasville Primary before moving to Ward.

Mr. Tribby is currently completing his doctor of education in educational leadership at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and serves on the WS/FCS District Planning Team and the board of the Forsyth Principals' Association. He has a post-masters Certificate of School Administration from UNC-G, a Master of Arts in music performance from the University of Rochester, and a Bachelor of Arts in music performance from the UNC School of the Arts.

Walter Johnson is currently serving as co-principal at Parkland High School, where he has co-led the school through the 2024–25 academic year with a focus on student engagement, community partnerships, and academic achievement. Prior to this role, he served as principal of Forbush Middle School in Yadkin County and held assistant principal positions at East Forsyth, Walkertown, and Parkland High Schools in WS/FCS.

Mr. Johnson holds an Education Specialist degree from East Carolina University, a master’s in school administration from Appalachian State University, and a Bachelor of Science in middle grades education from Winston-Salem State University.

Justin Marckel currently serves as principal of Moore Elementary School, where he led the school to significant academic gains, including exiting the NC Low-Performing School List and exceeding growth expectations. Previously, he was an English/language arts teacher at Hanes Middle School, as well as an assistant principal at Philo-Hill Magnet School and Southwest Elementary School in WS/FCS and at Cornatzer Elementary School in Davie County.

Dr. Marckel holds a doctorate in educational leadership from High Point University and has led numerous district initiatives, including work on deeper learning, teacher residency, and talent acquisition.

Rod Dupree is the new principal of Main Street Academy and Cynthia Russell has been named principal of Morgan Elementary School.

Dupree currently serves as the principal of Kingswood K-12. He started that role in 2015. He has a proven track record of successfully working with at-risk students and fostering a positive learning environment for students and staff. In the fall, the 6-12 portion of Kingswood will merge with Main Street.

He began his education career in 1998 as an exceptional children’s teacher. He later became a school counselor, assistant principal, and principal. He joined WS/FCS in 2010 as an assistant principal at Griffith Academy, which became Main Street Academy.

Dupree holds degrees in psychology, student counseling, and school administration, all from North Carolina A&T State University.

Russell currently serves as principal of Gibson Elementary School, where she has led the school for the past three years following her promotion from assistant principal.

Prior to her tenure at Gibson, Ms. Russell served as an instructional facilitator at John F. Kennedy High School and held leadership roles in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, including district-level support for Title I and advanced studies programs.

She holds a Master of Arts in School Administration from Gardner-Webb University and a Bachelor of Science in Middle Grades Education from Winston-Salem State University.