PENDER COUNTY — Pender County Schools staff debuted a several million dollar budget increase at the school board’s first budget session on Monday.
The school district is projecting a need of $4 million to maintain its existing services, with an additional $2.5 million estimated in advancements. If both increases were agreed to by the county commissioners, it would bring the school district’s budget to $38.45 million for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, up from almost $32 million in the current year.
READ MORE: Pender County schools balks at breaking calendar law, approves new 2026-2027 schedule
The potential operating increase is on top of a capital request of $12.7 million, an $8.7 million increase over the current fiscal year’s allocation. It is slated to cover more than $5 million in deferred maintenance and around $3 million in technology and transportation upgrades, among other items.
The school board did not take a vote on a budget proposal to submit to the county, though it indicated support for staff’s assessment of the district’s needs.
Chief Finance Officer Lisa Nowlin explained the district is seeing significant increases in current services, including to employee benefits — a 25% increase just in retirement contributions plus ballooning healthcare costs.
Nowlin added the district has a $2-million increase to its exceptional children expenditures; the legislature caps state funding at 13% percent of a district’s membership, leaving school districts on the hook for overages.
Nowlin is also budgeting for 3% raises for staff, though the state has not indicated how much it plans to increase teacher salaries; the state didn’t pass a budget last year and this year’s legislative session started April 21. Whatever rate the state chooses, school districts typically match in fairness for staff not covered by the state’s allotment formula. Thus, budgeting raises at a lower amount than what the state is believed to pass could result in a budget conundrum.
On top of mystery surrounding the state’s moves, the Pender County commissioners are sifting through their own budget woes after home values more than doubled on average following this year’s property revaluation, the first since 2019. As a result, the shocked commissioners decided to pause the revaluation, a legally questionable move, and hire a third-party firm to audit revaluation results. Without property values to base the tax rate on, the county has yet to present any proposed budget options to the commissioners.
“I don’t think there’s been any other time in which we are in a local budget season here in Pender County that we’ve had this many blindfolds put on, on what we can expect from the state, feds, our government,” Superintendent Brad Breedlove said at the meeting. “All of those entities that make up our budget, it’s really a guessing game.”
However, district staff pointed out Pender County’s 2024-2025 per-pupil expenditure is 68th ($2,625.19) out of 115 school districts across the state, while New Hanover ranked 17th ($4,159.31) and Brunswick is 18th ($4,122.16). This number is based on the total expenditure and not necessarily calculated based on what the county can afford to pay versus what it actually pays.
When it comes to state funding, Pender County ranks dead last at $7,121.59; New Hanover is $7797.75 and Brunswick is $7,977.80.
Breedlove said the state allotment is based on several factors, including the county’s property valuations and tax rate plus the local government’s per-pupil expenditure. The “wealth” of a county, determined through property values, determines whether a county receives some supplemental funding.
The state legislature also has a “non-supplant” rule requiring a county to prove it is making a minimum “effort” to support schools based on its capacity to do so; if they don’t their state funding can be prorated.
“If our local community is not providing what they should, the state hits us, also they’re not going to give us more … if you do bad at school, and you get punished by the school, you’re going home and getting punished at home too,” Breedlove said.
For the advancement of services, much of the funding increase is dedicated to employee pay, including a salary study. Nowlin is estimating around $500,000 to $750,000 to cover salary increases that are recommended in the study, yet to be completed.
“That’s our running theme for our request this year; it’s about improvement and retention,” Nowlin said.
PCS is looking at increasing its supplement pay by 0.5% to retain and recruit teachers. This would bring certified staff’s supplement up to 11% and non-certified to 6%; both items would cost the district an additional $685,000 annually.
Staff noted its teacher supplements would still be behind nearby peers. Pender County’s current 10.5% supplement for certified staff ranges from $4,175 to $6,364, while Brunswick’s ranges from $6,200 to $7,400; New Hanover’s is 7,000 to $10,000, but for positions deemed hard to fill, this goes up to $12,000.
The district is also dedicating an additional $100,000 to advanced teaching roles, where successful teachers can assist and oversee their peers’ professional development.
“There’s an avenue where a high quality teacher can now become a teacher of teachers,” Breedlove said. “That’s a big win for our school system. Where a teacher doesn’t want to go into administration to advance their career, they want to be a teacher, can stay in the classroom and do that.”
Staff are also still calculating a supplement for teachers who oversee extracurriculars after school and in the summer, like band and theater.
“We have athletic stipends, they’ve been in place for a long time,” Assistant Superintendent for Human Capital and Accountability Kevin Taylor said at the meeting. “We feel that those co-curricular activities are as important as the athletic components.”
Both the athletic increase and creation of the co-curricular supplement are budgeted at $250,000.
Other advancement costs include:
- Two additional general maintenance employees: $124,000
- Instructional Technology: $60,000
- HVAC/General Maintenance: $240,000
- Professional Development: $50,000
- Phase II Bus retention phase II: $250,000
Nowlin said staff will bring back updated numbers — specifically on the salary study — at the board’s next budget work session. The school board will also meet in a joint session with the county commissioners on April 23 to mainly discuss capital needs, according to the meeting notice.
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