Wake school board approves cuts to cover $17 million gap
CARY, N.C. (WTVD) -- The Wake County Board of Education approved budget changes Tuesday night to address a $17.6 million deficit needed to fund state-approved teacher raises and bonuses, a move district leaders said will have effects across the school system.
The deficit stems from the need to match raises and bonuses for locally funded staff members.
At Tuesday's meeting, parent Renee Sekl criticized the budget uncertainty created by delays at the state level.
All of those reductions that we saw are going to impact the classroom in some sort of some fashion.- Tyler Swanson, School Board Chair
"It's just absolutely bonkers that our school system had to pass a budget for this year when our legislature failed utterly to pass a budget last year," Sekl said.
Under the state budget, teachers and certified staff are expected to receive an average 8% raise, while noncertified staff will receive a 3% raise. The raises and bonuses total about $17.6 million.
"How are they expected to do anything when they don't know what the state is going to provide?" Sekl said.
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To cover the costs, the school board in a 7-to-2 vote approved several budget adjustments, including moving money from the district fund balance to pay one-time bonuses. The board also approved reductions to the restart schools fund balance and the substitute teacher budget.
School Board Chair Tyler Swanson said the cuts would be felt throughout the district.
"All of those reductions that we saw are going to impact the classroom in some sort of some fashion," Swanson said.
Swanson said board members chose not to reduce per-pupil funding provided to schools, which helps teachers purchase classroom supplies.
"Reducing the student resources or per-pupil funding that was there, we felt would have had the most impact because we're talking about 203 plus schools that would impact all 161,000 students," Swanson said.
While school operating budgets were spared, the district approved cuts to a local salary supplement for veteran teachers. Officials said the change will save about $1.9 million.
Some board members expressed frustration with the options available to close the funding gap.
"I am hoping that we can shift that, that 1% piece to our veteran teachers. Which is important to me, that we pay staff every opportunity we get to provide them funding," said board member Toshiba Rice.
"That is absolutely insane. That we are having to get down to $20 to decide OK, what are we, what are we going to cut," said board member Christina Gordon.
District officials said teachers can expect to receive their pay raises in September, along with back pay covering July and August.
