Wake County school board passes budget request with $18m in cuts

The Wake County Schools' board of education approved a budget request for the upcoming school year that makes more than $18 million in cuts from the district's current operations and asks the Wake County Board of Commissioners to raise the school district's funding by $40.3 million. This budget also requires the district to spend down $21.4 million, or more than half of its rainy day fund.

The board passed the budget request 6-to-3, with Cheryl Caulfield, Christina Gordon, and Wing Ng voting against. Even though a majority of board members voted for the budget, they characterized it as a difficult decision and expressed disappointment in the cuts.

"With inadequate state funding and with limited county funding, we have to be realistic and responsible about how we plan to spend the funds that we best expect we will receive," said board chair Chris Heagarty.

The budget request now goes to the Wake County Board of Commissioners for their consideration as they finalize the county's budget.

Wake County Schools' Chief Business Officer David Neter said the county manager is proposing a $35 million increase in county funding to the district, more than $5 million short of the board's final budget request.

The district's budget cuts include the following staff reductions:

• Removing vacant positions for administrators and nurses
• Redefining student-to-educator ratios for assistant principals, counselors, and social workers
• Removing "building subs" – substitute teachers who are stationed long term at specific buildings

Neter said the cuts would be necessary to fund the opening of four new schools and anticipated state-legislated employee raises, amid rising costs for charter schools that receive a portion of the district's local funding.

The school board's final budget request differs from Superintendent Robert Taylor's initial proposed budget, by restoring funding in these areas:

• The Superintendent's budget called to remove the employer contribution to employees' dental care premiums, starting in January 2026. The Board's budget calls for $2.5 million to keep those contributions.
  
• The Superintendent's budget called for reductions to contracted maintenance repairs. The Board's budget calls for $605,000 to restore reductions to maintenance.
  
• The Superintendent's budget called to reduce resources for area superintendents to use for Restart schools from $6 million to $5 million. The Board's budget would restore this cut. "Restart" is a reform model for schools that are considered continually low performing.

The school board's budget request proposes the following cuts to offset those changes:

• $2.8 million to reduce the Superintendent's proposed increase to local pay supplement for certified staff, including teachers, from 3% to 1.5%
• $500,000 in savings by adjusting building temperatures by 1 degree for air conditioning and heating
• About $764,000 from the community use fund to pay for background checks and utilities. The district's finance staff explained this would simply shift the source of those funds and would not impact other programs paid for by the community use fund.

During the school board's public comment period, educators called for the board to increase its request to the county to maintain the district's current operations.

"Please fight for no cuts for our kids," said Farmington Woods Elementary librarian Christine Zaccardi. "We show up every day. We ask the best of them. We bring the best of us, and we need the supplies and the resources to enable us to do that each day."

Wake County Association of Educators' President Christina Cole made a final plea for the board to make no cuts, reminding board members that this is Teacher Appreciation Week.

"The power is in your hands," Cole said. "Show public school staff you appreciate them this week by voting for a budget that requests what we need."

Board member Toshiba Rice compared her feelings about the budget to a mother with limited resources telling her child before they enter a store, "This is all I have, and don't ask for anything more."

"It's not what we desire; it's not what I desire. It is frustrating, but this is all we have," Rice said.

In voting against the budget, Cheryl Caulfield said she could not support a reduction in the locally-funded salary supplement for teachers.

"There's no way that I just feel justified allowing the supplement to be a sacrifice to get the resources in the classrooms," Caulfield said. "I have a hard time believing that we cannot conserve in other areas."

Board member Wing Ng said he was torn about his vote, and supported the additional funding for Restart schools, but ultimately voted against the budget. Ng and Sam Hershey both called for a broader organizational study to better understand the district's staffing and spending across levels of management.

Others blamed a lack of state funding from the North Carolina General Assembly for putting school boards in a tight place.

"As long as the General Assembly continues to erode public school funding, we will probably have to cut more in upcoming years, and that will certainly be true if federal cuts continue," said Lynn Edmonds.