Compared to Guilford County Schools’ relationship with its county commissioners, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools’ relationship with its county commissioners was a virtual lovefest. Not so these days as commissioners ponder how to spend $8 million in extra money. You guessed it — the school system wants its slice of the pie.

At issue is who should be making the bid:

Since September, teachers have sent more than 30 e-mails to commissioners asking them to give mo­ney to pay for teacher salary supplements.

Some of the e-mails asked commissioners to support educators, while others pointedly questioned their financing priorities.

“You just unloaded $2 million of the fund balance for the Tanglewood campground – aren’t we just as important?” wrote Lesley Guffey, a teacher at Meadowlark Middle School.

The e-mail campaign has upset several commissioners who say that the board of education is in control of the school’s budget, not county commissioners.

“Someone hadn’t done their homework. Teachers should know a lot better,” Commissioner Walter Marshall said. “They seem to think we have an unlimited amount of resources.”

WSFCS Superintendent Don Martin is caught in the middle, saying teachers, as citizens and taxpayers, have every right to contact county commissioners. But he was careful to add that the system didn’t ask teachers to do so. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s faced with the problem of trying to pay for capital projects and teacher supplements with a limited amount of money.

Commission chairwoman Gloria Whisenhunt sums it up:

“I think the school system got off on the wrong foot because before presenting this to us the teachers got involved,” Whisenhunt said. “I believe they may have used the wrong method instead of coming in here and saying, ‘We messed up and we need more money.’”