NEW HANOVER COUNTY — The New Hanover County Board of Education passed a budget Thursday after determining staff had answered enough of its questions to do so.
READ MORE: NHC schools nabs literacy grant from community endowment
It also comes after some school board members said the county wouldn’t respond to its request to meet to discuss the county’s allocation to NHCS. However, the county commissioner board chair refutes the claim.
With three days left to approve a financial plan, the board begrudgingly approved the additional $5.5 million in funding from the county commissioners (they got an additional $4 million to cover school nurses, therapists and two pre-K classrooms). The plan received unanimous approval, though board member Melissa Mason was absent from the vote.
As part of its $20-million budget shortfall, the district has been faced with eliminating 279 positions. It’s been relying on natural attrition to reach that number, but that’s been a slower process than expected.
Of the $5.5 million, $2.3 million will go toward continued attrition and reshuffling efforts. The funds will cover pay gaps for employees that are moved to lower-paying positions for up to one year. The money will also go toward paying for employees as natural attrition continues.
On Thursday, the board requested to use the remaining $3.2 million to protect the following prioritized positions where possible:
- 17 EC teachers
- 12 AIG teachers
- 11.85 EC teacher assistants
“We said, of the ones being cut, these are our top priorities that we didn’t want to see cut,” board member Josie Barnhart said. “So not saying that we want to cut out elsewhere, but of the positions being cut, this was a concern.”
Board member Stephanie Walker was also uneasy that the district’s EC numbers were not enough to support its EC students.
“It is,” Superintendent Charles Foust said. “We are serving them.”
The state has certain stipulations on how a district must support its EC population. Foust, along with other leadership, have maintained they have enough staff to comply with state regulations.
As for the latest on the district’s phasing out of the 279 positions, Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Christopher Barnes told the board the district has 98 “active” positions; they either have someone occupying a position or someone will need to be hired by the beginning of the school year.
There are 138 “inactive,” or ones that have been eliminated or vacant. There are also 62 “frozen” positions that could be placed in either category depending on reshuffling. For positions that are being eliminated, the district will try to move those employees to other jobs they have the qualifications for; with specialized positions, such as social workers or music teachers, it will be a more difficult task.
The board has been grappling with its budget for months. Half of its $20-million deficit resulted from the expiration of federal Covid-19 relief funds — around 170 positions were part of those dollars — and the other half was necessitated by declining student enrollment, mandated increases to teacher pay and benefits, and a lack of fund balance to fill in any gaps.
For the last several years, the board used its fund balance to reach budget equilibrium, depleting the reserves at the behest of county commissioners.
The board hoped commissioners would provide more funding, at one point asking for more than $10 million. Strapped for extra cash, commissioners didn’t want to pull from their revenue stabilization fund — created from the 2020 county hospital sale to Novant — nor raise taxes.
Some board members were still adamant commissioners should have done more; Hugh McManus said county officials “owed” the board.
“This is a do or die for the next decade or so in this school system,” he said.
Both he and chair Pete Wildeboer put on record two attempts were made to meet with the commissioners, both of which went unobliged by their accounts. Wildeboer agreed to try again in the days to come with the hope of mediating a resolution.
However, county commissioners chair Bill Rivenbark countered these claims to Port City Daily on Thursday.
“Recent claims that I and the Board of Commissioners have refused to meet with the Board of Education are unfounded,” Rivenbark wrote in an email.
He went on to say Wildeboer reached out to him once, a week after the commissioners passed their budget.
“He mentioned two specific issues as the reason for needing to meet: capital improvements at New Hanover High School and funding for litigation,” Rivenbark said. “I suggested he coordinate through our respective clerks’ offices to set up a possible meeting, as is our usual process.”
He said this correspondence happened Monday, June 24.
At a school board meeting last week, the board’s legal counsel Jonathan Vogel did present an opportunity to get more from commissioners. He said the school board, if it believes its local funding is insufficient, has the right to call a joint meeting with commissioners to mediate the discrepancy. However, the school board had to do so by Monday, seven days after the county’s budget passage; it did not.
Board member Stephanie Kraybill said she did not think the school board had the grounds to sue the county for not meeting with them nor for not fully completing their funding request, but it’s possible they could over the capital allocation — the sole responsibility of local governments in school funding.
The district was only given $2 million in capital funding this year, though the county’s original plan was zilch. Most of the funds will go toward urgent needs at the 102-year-old New Hanover High School.
Though the budget was finalized, the district allocated funding based on estimated state and federal funding. If those numbers come in lower than expected, or say, the state decides to increase teacher pay again, the board will have to come back to the table.
Reach journalist Brenna Flanagan at brenna@localdailymedia.com.
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