Wake schools want $56 million more from commissioners. Here’s what that would fund.
Wake County Superintendent Cathy Moore wants a $56 million increase in local school funding this year, with most of the increase going toward employee raises.
Moore on Tuesday unveiled a proposed budget for the 2022-23 school year that includes across-the-board raises, including raising the minimum wage for support staff to $16 an hour. Employee raises account for $35.2 million of the additional local funding requested from the Wake County Board of Commissioners.
Under the proposed $2.1 billion operating budget, Moore wants $600 million from commissioners. That $56 million increase is 10% above what they’re providing this school year.
“We have a long way to go if we are to put every child on a path toward academic success within this new reality,” Moore said at Tuesday’s school board meeting. “In 2022-23, that has to start with shoring up our workforce.”
National labor shortage
In North Carolina, the state funds the salaries of many, but not all, school employees. In addition to the locally funded positions, school districts use their county dollars to supplement state pay.
School leaders say more action is needed because of nationwide school staffing shortages that are forcing existing workers to do more. The frustration boiled over last fall, with some school bus drivers and cafeteria workers holding sick-outs to protest working conditions in Wake.
“To cover gaps during the past year, we have asked bus drivers to drive triple and sometimes quadruple routes to get students to and from school each day,” Moore said. “Hundreds of Central Services staff report to schools each week to assist cafeteria workers, custodial staff, teachers and instructional students.”
The school board has already taken steps this school year such as voting in December to raise the minimum salary for support staff to $15 an hour. Wake has also used federal COVID relief funds to provide employees with up to $5,000 in retention bonuses. The board also approved up to an additional $1,350 in bonuses for cafeteria workers on Tuesday.
But school leaders say they’re still facing acute staffing shortages such as 22% for bus drivers, 17% for cafeteria workers, 16% for special-education instructional assistants and 7.5% for special-education teachers.
The school board will hold a public hearing on the budget on April 19 before voting on it on May 3. The budget can be found online at wcpss.net/Page/51378.
Last year, commissioners fully funded the school board’s request for an additional $16 million in local funding.
Where are the increases going?
The biggest chunk of the $56 million increase is for salary increases. Support staff will get at least $16 an hour or an 0.5% increase more than what the state will provide this year.
Teachers will get a 2.5% increase in the local salary supplement to match what the state is expected to provide.
Other areas the increase would go to include:
▪ An additional $8.3 million to meet state legislative requirements such as additional funding for charter schools.
▪ An additional $6.4 million to help open four new schools.
▪ An additional $5 million to increase maintenance spending.
▪ An additional $960,000 to hire more instructional support technicians.
The new budget plan comes at a time when the school district is trying to move past the COVID pandemic. Some state test scores went up last semester, but student performance overall has dropped over the past two years.
“For our parents, this pandemic has been particularly difficult,” Moore said. “But the connection between parents and their teachers often grew stronger in this struggle.”
COVID-19 aid ‘fiscal cliff’
Some critics of the school board say that Wake should first tap into COVID-19 relief funds to meet its budget needs.
School administrators estimate that they’ll have $176.5 million out of $431.4 million in pandemic funds left as of July 1. They’ll have two more years to spend the remaining money.
Staff bonuses will account for $64.7 million of the $255 million spent through June 30. More than $60 million was also spent on summer learning programs and addressing student learning loss.
David Neter, Wake’s chief business officer, warned they have to be careful how to use the COVID money. He said they’ve already got a $35 million “fiscal cliff” where they’ll have to replace the COVID dollars now being used on things such as paying for more counselors and school maintenance staff.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 7:19 PM.
