In September, Union County Public Schools celebrated becoming the highest-performing school district in North Carolina. Two months later, the district is embroiled in a bitter dispute over teacher pay — a conflict that has led to mass teacher absences, public bickering between school and county leaders, and ongoing frustration among educators who say they are falling behind financially.
Union County Public Schools often ranks near the top statewide, and this year it announced a major milestone: UCPS had the highest average scores on end-of-grade and end-of-course exams. But soon after that announcement, tensions flared.
At a Nov. 6 rally organized by the North Carolina Association of Educators, teachers chanted for more resources as the district’s plan for a $2,000 increase in local supplements was reduced to a $1,000 raise — after initial rumors that no increase would come at all.
The state’s General Assembly sets the base teacher pay scale. But counties — who provide a portion of their local school district’s funding — can supplement that pay. UCPS teachers received an average local supplement of $6,341 last year, placing the district 37th in North Carolina.
Pamela Carlton, president of the Union County chapter of the NCAE and a UCPS Exceptional Children’s teacher, said the district’s academic success made the pay dispute even harder to accept.
“People are saying, wow, we are number one in the state, but we’re fighting for a measly $2,000 and we can’t even get that increase,” Carlton said.
Carlton said teachers are grappling with rising health insurance premiums in the health plan for state employees. In a state that regularly ranks in the 40s when it comes to teacher pay, Carlton says teachers are more frustrated than ever.
“Teachers are already not making enough money,” Carlton said. “Some people have two and three other jobs just to try to make it.”
The standoff has devolved into a public feud between the UCPS Board of Education and the Union County Board of Commissioners. The conflict traces back to spring budget discussions. At that time, relations between the two bodies appeared cordial.
In May, the school board approved a request for a $14.6 million increase — including the $2,000 supplement — even though it exceeded what the county signaled it could fund. The county ultimately approved an $8.8 million increase.
Commissioner Melissa Merrill, a former school board member, said district leaders knew they would need to scale back their plans.
“You would have to decide to strike out everything else on the budget request and do the $2,000 stipend, or go back to the $1,000 stipend,” she told them in June.
Then, in October, the county commission heard from teachers that the supplement was paused entirely. Some communications sent out to teachers appeared to suggest it was because the county had not funded any increase. At a county commission meeting, Merrell said she expected to at least see the $1,000 increase.
“I was, one, shocked they didn’t get it. And then I was shocked that this board was blamed for them not getting it,” she said.
School officials have said the confusion stemmed from a miscommunication. School board chair Jimmy Bention has said a phone call could have clarified the situation, though county commissioners later claimed an attempt at communication was made.
As for the pause, school officials say they always intended to move forward with the $1,000 increase, but temporarily held back to guard against the possibility of unexpected costs due to the ongoing state budget stalemate in Raleigh. But between the two boards, the damage had been done.
The county wrote a public letter chastising the school board. The school board wrote its own letter expressing “deep disappointment” in the county. Hundreds of teachers called in sick in protest. Even as UCPS moved to finalize the $1,000 raise, calls for $2,000 persisted.
In November, the county commissioners held a lengthy meeting to dig into school funding. Commissioner Brian Helms suggested school officials had overpromised on the $2,000 supplement.
“If you make the promise, you write the check,” Helms said.
School board member Sandra Greene pushed back sharply at a school board meeting.
“I’m completely and utterly — and I’m saying this publicly — disgusted with the lies that have come out of the county commissioners,” she said.
Here’s where things stand now: UCPS approved a $1,000 supplement increase at its Nov. 6 meeting. Superintendent Andrew Houlihan said district officials always intended to deliver the raise but paused until they were confident it was financially feasible amid the state budget uncertainty. But as for the full $2,000, Superintendent Andrew Houlihan said the county allotment can’t cover it, particularly with the mandatory costs the school district has to cover.
“The board of county commissioners and the board of education have already publicly acknowledged that the $8.8 million increase was not enough to provide the $2,000 supplement increase,” Houlihan said at a November meeting.
Helms of the county commissioners told WFAE that school officials have painted the county as falling short in supporting public education, when Union County Schools account for 49% of the county’s overall funding. Meeting the UCPS budget request likely would have required a tax raise, he argued. He questions whether UCPS could do more to find savings in its own budget.
“Just to put it bluntly, they're taking credit for a $1,000 supplement increase that was afforded to UCPS by the taxpayers of Union County,” Helms said. “And then they're trying to blame the county for the $1000 that they didn't receive.”
Helms told WFAE there has been some more recent communication between the two boards to try and “determine a path forward.”
But in the meantime, Carlton said her organization believes the pressure is on the county for failing to fund the school board’s full request. She said teachers plan to attend Monday’s county meeting and continue pressing for the full supplement.
“So, county commissioners, it's time,” Carlton said. “It's time to come off that money because you're going to keep seeing us week after week after week after week until something is done.”
But the Union County conflict may already be influencing broader conversations. A week after the walkout, anonymous social media posts called for statewide teacher protests over the lack of a state budget and persistently low pay. Those mass callouts didn’t materialize, but some teachers participated or organized in other ways. Carlton said more organized actions could be coming.
If those materialize, she said, Union County may have helped spark them.
