PENDER COUNTY — The Pender County Board of Commissioners has agreed to meet Pender County School’s funding request to continue its same service level, adding to the amount approved in its budget last week.
In a joint meeting with the school board on Wednesday, the commissioners unanimously voted to give the school district an additional $2.7 million, ensuring the district does not need to make position cuts outlined in a Tuesday school board meeting.
The $2.7 million will be in addition to the $1.3 million in additional funding for the school district provided in commissioners’ fiscal year 2026-2027 budget, passed on June 15. Only a quarter of the school district’s request was included as part of commissioners’ effort to maintain services without raising taxes. However, the district, like all government departments, is experiencing rising cost-of-living and benefit costs.
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The additional $2.7 million comes out of the county’s available fund balance, which county manager Colby Sawyer did express concerns over using.
“I am a very strong advocate of not using our fund balance for recurring expenses because when we use our fund balance for recurring expenses, the balance goes away, the expense does not,” Sawyer said.
The commissioners shared Sawyer’s apprehension, though commissioners Jerry Groves and Brad George noted their aversion to the county amassing funds instead of using them for beneficial purposes.
“I’ve made the statement several times that fund balance is nice and it’s important to have at a certain level, but when you accumulate too much that’s over-taxation,” George said.
Groves pointed to the public feedback the commissioners received at the meeting Wednesday, which featured 10 speakers each advocating for more school funding.
“I campaigned on fund balance,” he said, referring to his 2022 campaign against George Brown. Groves did not re-file to run in the 2026 election.
Groves continued: “We had 80-some million. I beat a man that was in here 16 years. So evidently, the people want to spend the money that they’ve been accumulating.”
The county is now projecting to spend down its fund balance from $68.8 million to $45.7 million; this reduction includes $12 million for the school district’s capital needs. This would bring the balance down to 32.8% of the general fund; the county’s policy is 20%.
Without the addition of $2.7 million, Superintendent Brad Breedlove stressed that cuts would need to be made. In a presentation to the school board Tuesday, he shared that 21 central office positions would be cut and those employees would be moved into vacant positions in the schools.
The eliminated positions include eight out of the district’s 10 exceptional children coordinators, as well as instructional coaches and beginning teacher development coordinators. Other cuts included a 25% decrease in substitute teacher funding and a complete elimination of professional development funds.
During the joint board meeting, 10 community members were given the opportunity to speak about what these cuts mean for staff, students, and families in the district.
“When we discuss school funding it is easy to get lost in budget lines but every number is a child,” Pender County parent and North Topsail Elementary PTA President Sarah Ware said. “A child learning to read. A child discovering a talent. A child who may someday become a teacher, nurse, engineer, business owner, or first responder right here in our county. wareThe question before us is bigger than a budget. What kind of county do we want to be? Do we want to be known as a county that invests in its future or one that balances its books by asking children and educators to do more with less?”
Commissioners were receptive to the public comment; Commissioner Jimmy Tate said he was unaware the school district’s need was so dire.
“I just think we could have all came together and resolved this issue before getting everyone here tonight,” Tate said. “I just really wish that we would have heard that even louder. Me, myself, sometimes it may take twice for me to understand it. So I would like to have heard that a little bit louder.”
Like other county department heads, Superintendent Breedlove appeared before commissioners during the budget process to explain the district’s requested amount and answer questions. Breedlove responded by saying he had met with county officials prior to budget passage and went through what would happen if the school only received portions of their funding request.
Both the commissioners and the board of education expressed they found the joint meeting helpful and would like to commit to more collaboration in the future. Though a formal vote wasn’t taken, the two boards agreed to meet once a quarter to prevent situations like the funding gap they currently found themselves in. However, there was also an understanding that while the boards could collaborate on the local level, support from the state legislature is missing.
“The most important folks are not in this room tonight. The folks that sit in them chairs in Raleigh, that’s the folks that we need to be having a conversation. They need to be explaining to the citizens in Pender and the parents why they shorted, what was it? $4.5 million,” Burton said.
At the beginning of the meeting, Board of Education Chairman Don Hall asked Breedlove to ensure the audience knew “the state has a whole lot of fault in this.” Breedlove backed Hall, explaining the North Carolina General Assembly had not passed a budget in four years, meaning the schools are using a continuing budget. While health insurance, payroll taxes, retirement and other expenses have increased, school state funding has remained the same, leaving it up to the county to make up the difference.
Tate put forward a motion to suspend the county’s rules to allow for an item to be added to the agenda. Once an agenda is adopted, additional subject-matters are typically not able to be voted on. The vote to amend the agenda was unanimous.
A motion was then made to meet school operation fund requests by taking $2.7 million out of the fund balance. It was again a unanimous vote and was met with clapping and cheers from the audience.
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