Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools plan for stability, hopes for improvement

EDUCATION

CHAPEL HILL–If federal education budget cuts hit Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS), the school district must decide which student populations need services the most, according to CHCCS Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Scott.

On April 29, CHCCS, Orange County Schools, and the county Board of Commissioners held a joint presentation on budgets for the next fiscal year. Scott said federal funding for FY 2024 added $9.2 million to CHCCS’ funds. That included $3 million for school nutrition programs, $3 million for special education, and $3.2 million for various other programs.

“If we lose the funds, we’ll lose staff on site,” said Scott. That could force CHCCS to decide which vulnerable students needed help the most.

Continuation and growth

Scott told the assembled officials that CHCCS had put together two budgets. The “continuation” budget assumed there’d be no extra funding and allowed only necessary increases. The “expansion” budget added a wish list in case the district ended up with more money to spend than it expected.

The continuation budget includes 3% salary and wage increases totaling $1.6 million; $1.7 million for benefit increases covering healthcare and employer contributions to retirement funds; and $500,00 for a 3%t inflation adjustment reflecting added costs for supplies and utilities.

The expansion budget includes $725,000 in staff supplements, a form of bonus pay; $2.3 million to provide more pay for teachers with a master’s level in education; and $1 million in a certified supplement for beginning teachers. Scott said CHCCS has fallen behind other area school districts such as Wake and Durham, leading to teachers leaving for greener local pastures.

Another $1.3 million would cover the rising costs of textbooks and course curriculum materials. Scott said instructional materials are increasingly offered as subscriptions, requiring schools to renew them year after year. That costs more.

The rest of the expansion budget includes $588,000 to bring back 4th and 5th grade teachers’ assistants cut from past budgets, $927,000 for instructional tech facilitators who help integrate technology into the classroom, and $148,000 for school counselors.

Setting priorities

Commissioner Earl McKee said the roughly $7 million added spending in the expansion budget gave him “extreme heartburn” when county residents’ property taxes were also rising. Even if Orange County set a revenue-neutral rate — one that delivers the same total property tax revenue despite property values rising — some individual homeowners were bound to suffer.

Commissioner Marilyn Carter said if the inflation rate stayed low, some of the continuation budget might be doable. On the other hand, what if they approved the CHCCS budget, then inflation spiked beyond what was budgeted for?

Scott said unpleasant surprises such as an inflation increase or an unexpected state budget decision are not at all uncommon. A standard solution is to tap CHCCS’ reserves but at the moment they’re around $40,000. Another alternative is to ask the county for more money. A third would be to cut services or staff.

McKee said spending more on schools wouldn’t benefit local families if they had to move out of the area due to rising property taxes.

“We don’t want to push community members out,” agreed Rani Dasi, a member of the CHCCS Board of Education, “but we don’t want to harm our students.”

The federal factor

On top of everything else, Commissioner Jamezetta Bedford said, “We have the risk of ‘What are the feds going to do?’”

Federal funding, Scott said, provides 5 to 6% of CHCCS’ operations budget. It includes: money for retaining teachers; more programs for students learning English; more professional development for teachers; services for students with disabilities; and nutritious meals for poor students. “Hundreds of thousands of lunches every year are provided to some of our most at-risk children free of charge.” Without federal support they’d either have to limit menu choices or raise lunch prices for all students. “One of our largest uses of federal funds is school nutrition.”

Scott said nobody at the state or federal level had given any specifics about education funding yet. The district had been imagining scenarios in which it would have to adapt to various levels of cuts.

Fraser Sherman has worked for newspapers, including the Destin Log, the Pensacola News-Journal and the Raleigh Public Record. Born in England, he’d still live in Florida if he hadn’t met the perfect woman and moved to Durham to marry her. He’s the author of several film reference books and has published one novel and several short story collections. This reporter can be reached at: Information@TheLocal Reporter.press