FORSYTH COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) -- Making history comes with a lot of self-inflicted pressure. Just ask Shontell Robinson. “I want to do a good job for our community, for our employees, for our county commissioners,” she told me recently during an interview at the Forsyth County Government Center. “There are a lot of people who are relying on me as well as my team. So yes, I think the self-inflicted pressure for me is just making sure I do a good job so I won’t be the last.” The “last” refers to her new position as the first woman and first African-American Forsyth County manager. She assumed this role on July 1 after spending more than 10 years as the county’s human resources director, health and human services director as well as assistant and deputy county manager. As the county’s top executive, she oversees 25 departments, 2,500 employees and a budget of $583 million. But there’s something else she’s heavily involved in coordinating, and it’s something she had no idea she’d be doing when she took her oath of office last summer. In fact, she calls it Forsyth County’s biggest challenge right now. “It’s definitely emergency response,” she told me. Since the remnants of Hurricane Helene caused major damage in western North Carolina on Sept. 27, Forsyth County has been sending resources to that region. At this writing, about 100 county employees are transitioning in and out. “We have health and human services teams that have been helping in emergency shelters. We have emergency services that’s been helping law enforcement, helping Buncombe County’s Sheriff’s Office,” she said. “We just had a team go out over the weekend to Caldwell County to help stand up an animal shelter.” Unfortunately, the county can’t sustain this help long-term given the up-front and overtime costs. “So we have reached out to our state legislators. Our ask is that we can receive FEMA reimbursement or state reimbursement at least on a monthly basis because typically for these types of disasters, we don’t receive reimbursement for a year, sometimes two years.” Another one of Robinson’s priorities is following up on what she learned during a series of community listening sessions held at libraries across the county this summer. You can read a “summary report” of these listening sessions, which includes key themes, feedback and recommendations. Among the major themes people in the community expressed in these sessions: school overcrowding. “School overcrowding is something the school board will need to address because quite frankly, there are a lot of schools that are underutilized and they’re not overcrowded,” she told me. “And so they (the school board) really need to assess schools that are probably over-capacity and the schools that are under-capacity and figure out ways to right-size that.” Robinson also pointed out she meets frequently with Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Superintendent Tricia McManus about this and school funding. The school system received $175 million from Forsyth County this year, $8.3 million more than last year and a 5% increase. The school system (as practically all school systems do with their respective county commissioners) wanted more, $20 million more. Robinson hopes to continue to work on closing that gap. “One of the things that I am working on with Superintendent McManus is we have a funding formula that we have been utilizing. But that formula has not been assessed in quite some time,” Robinson said. “So the superintendent and I and our teams are working really hard to, hopefully, come up with a modified funding formula that will be beneficial to all involved.” Speaking of budgeting: the county commissioners decide how to spend taxpayer money, but Robinson, as county manager, makes recommendations on how to spend it. For the 2025 fiscal year, commissioners decided to keep the tax rate where it was. Robinson says it’s her goal to keep that rate where it is while maintaining services. And if it’s not working, she’ll have that conversation with commissioners. In the meantime, Robinson wants to remind the people of Forsyth County is accessible. (She told me she returns phone calls.) She also wants people to know the county is beyond its buildings and symbols with it comes to serving. “I think there are a lot of opportunities here. But it’s not without challenges,” she told me. “I feel like if we all come together, especially with the community and our  municipality partners and schools, I really see us being able to help our community with economic mobility and all of the challenges we have.” For more information on the Forsyth County manager’s office, click here.