McDowell County Schools vs Preston County Schools
NC · 5,792 students • WV · 3,765 students • fiscal year 2024 • swap sides
In one line
- Preston County Schools spends 4% more per student than McDowell County Schools after adjusting for local price levels.
- McDowell County Schools directs 7 more cents of every operating dollar to instruction than Preston County Schools.
- Preston County Schools is far more dependent on local property taxes (32% of revenue vs 16%), which ties its budget more tightly to local property values.
Are these even comparable?
Establish the shape of each district before reading a single dollar figure.
| McDowell County Schools | Preston County Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Students enrolled | 5,792 | 3,765 |
| Schools | 15 | 10 |
| Grades served | PK–13 | PK–12 |
| Setting | Rural | Rural |
| County | McDowell County | Preston County |
| State | NC | WV |
| Local price level (US = 100) Above 100 means a dollar buys less here than the national average. | 94.3 | 93.3 |
The headline dollar
Current operating spending per student, shown three ways. The first is what each district reports. The second and third are the honest ones for comparison.
| McDowell County Schools | Preston County Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Per student, as reported | $13,415 | $13,789 |
| Per student, price-adjusted Divided by the local price level, so both figures are in the same money. | $14,222 | $14,776 |
| Per student, price-adjusted, excluding transport Transportation provision varies enormously between districts and states. Removing it compares the parts both districts actually do. | $13,785 | $13,535 |
| Capital spending per student Buildings and land, never folded into the operating figures above. It is lumpy: a district mid-build looks expensive for two years. | Locked | Locked |
McDowell County Schools
Preston County Schools
Where the money comes from
The funding mix determines how exposed a district is to local property values, to state politics, and to federal programmes ending.
McDowell County Schools
- Local 16.4% Locked
- State 66.3% Locked
- Federal 17.3% Locked
Preston County Schools
- Local 32.3% Locked
- State 51.1% Locked
- Federal 16.6% Locked
| McDowell County Schools | Preston County Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Local share of revenue Mostly property tax. A high share means school budgets track local property values, up and down. | 16.4% | 32.3% |
| State share of revenue | 66.3% | 51.1% |
| Federal share of revenue | 17.3% | 16.6% |
| Total revenue | Locked | Locked |
How NC funds its districts
Position-and-allotment funding: the state pays for teaching positions and categorical allotments rather than a single per-pupil sum.
How WV funds its districts
We have not yet written up WV's funding formula, so nothing is claimed here.
Where the money goes
The same slices in the same order for both districts, plus the differences by function — because two pie charts side by side hide exactly the thing you want to see.
McDowell County Schools
- Instruction 63.1% Locked
- Instructional staff support 4.0% Locked
- Student support 6.0% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 7.2% Locked
- Transportation 3.1% Locked
- Food service 6.2% Locked
- School administration 5.8% Locked
- District administration 0.9% Locked
- Other support 3.8% Locked
- Other current 6.2% Locked
Preston County Schools
- Instruction 55.6% Locked
- Instructional staff support 4.3% Locked
- Student support 6.0% Locked
- Operations & maintenance 10.6% Locked
- Transportation 8.4% Locked
- Food service 5.6% Locked
- School administration 4.3% Locked
- District administration 1.9% Locked
- Other support 0.7% Locked
- Other current 5.6% Locked
What is actually different
Share of each district's operating dollar, McDowell County Schools minus Preston County Schools. Two pie charts side by side are almost impossible to read against each other; this is the same data as one chart.
| McDowell County Schools | Preston County Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Cents of each operating dollar reaching classrooms Instruction plus instructional staff support, as a share of current spending. | 67.1% | 59.9% |
| Administration share District office plus school administration. | 6.7% | 6.3% |
| Transportation share | 3.1% | 8.4% |
What the money buys
Staffing levels are the most direct thing a budget converts into.
| McDowell County Schools | Preston County Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Students per teacher This is a staffing ratio: total enrollment divided by teaching staff. It is NOT average class size. Actual classes are larger than this number in every district. | 15.2 | 14.0 |
| Students per counselor | Locked | Locked |
| Students per administrator | Locked | Locked |
| Total salaries All staff, not teachers alone. | Locked | Locked |
Who they serve
The answer to "but they serve different kids" — which is usually a fair objection.
| McDowell County Schools | Preston County Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Child poverty rate Children aged 5 to 17 in poverty within the district boundary. Used instead of free-lunch eligibility, which community eligibility has made unusable for comparison. | 18.6% | 17.8% |
| English learners | — | — |
| Students with disabilities | — | — |
| Enrollment change, 5 years | -1.9% | -14.1% |
Results, and results for the money
Stability and risk
The homebuyer’s real question: what is likely to change after I move in?
McDowell County Schools
No stability flags raised.
Preston County Schools
- Declining enrollment Enrollment fell more than 5% over five years. Enrollment decline is the single best predictor of school closures and programme cuts.
| McDowell County Schools | Preston County Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| Enrollment change, 5 years | -1.9% | -14.1% |
| Long-term debt per student | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service share of spending | Locked | Locked |
Enrolling a child
Is a seat at your zoned school guaranteed?
McDowell County Schools
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
Preston County Schools
We have no such statement from this district — which is not the same as a promise that your zoned school has room. Most districts never publish the policy in either direction. Ask the school office directly whether your address’s school is enrolling at your child’s grade level before you sign anything.
- This is the district’s own published wording, not our summary of it. Policies are rewritten between enrollment seasons and a page can be out of date the day after we read it — the school office is the only authority on whether a particular grade at a particular school is full right now.
- A warning here is about capacity, not about your address. It does not mean your child will be moved; it means the district has told you in writing that it may move them.
Comparability notes
- Cross-state comparison. Dollars below are shown both as reported and adjusted to a common price level, because a dollar buys different amounts of teacher in NC and WV.
- At least one district sits outside a metro area with its own published price index, so its cost adjustment uses the statewide index. That is a coarser adjustment.
What these numbers are, exactly
Who decides, and what it costs you
Every band above this one asks what a district spends. This one asks who chose to.
McDowell County Schools
The county or town levies it, not the district
This school system reports no property tax of its own. It is a dependent system: the county or city levies the tax and appropriates money to the schools. You still pay school property tax — the school board simply is not the body that sets it, and the appropriation is argued out at the county or city council.
Preston County Schools
The district levies its own school tax
This district raises property tax in its own name. Who sets the rate varies by state — an elected board in some, a public vote in others — but the levy is the school system’s own, and it is the part of a tax bill that school politics moves most directly.
| McDowell County Schools | Preston County Schools | |
|---|---|---|
| School property tax levied, per student Only for districts that levy in their own name. Blank where the county or town levies instead — see the cards above, and read the next row. | — | $4,828 |
| Appropriated by the county or town, per student What the parent government handed the schools, for dependent systems. This is a general appropriation, not solely property tax. | $1,767 | — |
| Property tax as a share of all revenue How much of the budget rides on local property values, and therefore on local votes. | — | 27.9% |
| Long-term debt already owed, per student The balance at the end of the year, for scale. Repaid over decades, so it is a commitment made by earlier boards rather than a bill arriving now. | Locked | Locked |
| Debt service as a share of spending Interest plus principal repaid this year, against total spending. This is the part of the debt that is being paid now, out of money that would otherwise reach a classroom. | Locked | Locked |
| New long-term debt issued, per student Money borrowed during fiscal year 2024. What this figure does and does not tell you is set out under the table. | $0 | $0 |
- McDowell County Schools: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- Preston County Schools: issued no new long-term debt in fiscal year 2024. That is a reported zero, not a gap in the data.
- A figure in the borrowing row is not a bond voters approved. It records debt issued, and that includes refinancing existing debt at a new rate — which changes nothing about what a district owes — as well as certificates of participation and lease-revenue debt, which in many states a board can issue with no referendum at all. To find out what was actually on a ballot, check the county election office.
- Debt is repaid over decades. A large balance per student is a commitment made by earlier boards and earlier voters, not a bill arriving this year. The debt service row above it is the part being paid now.
Who sits on the board
McDowell County Schools board of education
- Terry Frank — Board Chairman
- Chuck Abernathy — Board Vice Chairman
- Jimmy Allison
- Paul Baker
- Greg Barksdale
- Derrick McGinnis
- Eddie Shuford
- Donnie Suttles
6 of these are listed on the page without an office. It names them among the board without saying which office they hold, so none is shown for them. It is not a vacancy.
Read from the district’s own board page on 2026-08-24. Boards change; the district’s page is the current record, not ours.
These seats are elected, and what this board decides — the budget, the attendance boundaries, the calendar — is decided at a meeting the public may attend. The district’s own board page, linked above, is where it publishes the schedule and the agenda. We do not hold meeting dates or contact details for these people.
Funding measures on the ballot
McDowell County Schools
We hold every school funding measure the state of NC published for 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024, and this district appears in none of them.
What this state publishes: County school bond referenda only, from 2013 on. North Carolina's largest school money question is the local sales-and-use tax, and its ballot never mentions schools, so it cannot be told apart from any other county sales tax and is not read. Bonds in counties with more than one school unit are not attributed to either.
Preston County Schools
We have not read WV’s election results, so this column is empty because of us and not because of Preston County Schools. Whether it has asked its voters for money is a question its county election office can answer and we cannot, yet.
Nobody has read WV’s school election results yet — that is a gap on our side, not a fact about this district. Its county elections office holds what it asked its voters for and what they answered, and that is a public record you can request. What it says is worth asking about at a board meeting.
The detailed figures for McDowell County Schools and Preston County Schools
The verdict, the headline dollar, the funding shares, who is served and every comparability caveat are free above, and stay free. What is behind the lock is the detail you would want before acting on any of it:
- capital spending per student
- total revenue and total current spending, and the funding mix in dollars (the percentage shares stay free)
- the ten-line per-student breakdown of where the money goes
- counselor and administrator ratios, and the total salary bill
- the debt behind the risk flags — per student, and as a share of spending
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Compare something else
McDowell County Schools on its own · Preston County Schools on its own