On Tuesday, January 16, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes sent a memo to district directors, supervisors, and principals throughout the New Hanover County Schools (NHCS) system.
“As everyone is aware, we are continuing to look for ways to consolidate our budget priorities and reduce our overall spending to align to our current funding sources and adapt to our overall reduction in enrollment,” Barnes wrote in the memo, acquired by WHQR over the weekend.
“One of the main ways we can address budgetary shortfalls is by enforcing a strict hiring freeze until we complete the budget process and have a coordinated plan for positions for the next school year,” Barnes wrote.
Barnes wrote that legally mandated positions will be filled with internal candidates where possible and that vacancies created through resignation and retirement would either remain vacant or be filled by “reallocating current resources.”
The district is currently facing a fund balance shortfall of roughly $10 million, according to multiple statements from Superintendent Dr. Charles Foust. A combination of reduced student enrollment — which directly reduces per-pupil funding from the state and county — and the expiration of federal Covid-relief funding is largely the cause.
Chief Financial Officer Ashley Sutton recently told the Board of Education, “It's going to be a difficult budget process this year,” and Dr. Foust said he was working on a zero-basedbudget that would require department heads to justify spending. Foust added that if department heads didn’t keep their budgets below certain levels, he and Sutton would make necessary cuts.
Related: NHCS financial officer: "It's going to be a difficult budget process this year"
Asked for comment, the district sent a statement from Dr. Barnes that is largely the same as the language in last week’s memo. However, it replaced the phrase “enforcing a strict hiring freeze” with “implementing a pause in hiring.”
It also notes more directly that the district’s “ultimate goal is to use natural attrition, which is the rate of retirement and resignation, to reduce our staffing without overburdening our staff or our schools.”
The district is still holding a two-day career fair held Tuesday morning at the Board of Education building and Wednesday morning at Myrtle Grove Middle School.
“Since we have certain positions that are considered essential based on district needs and alternate funding sources (e.g. grant funds, etc...) we will still be going ahead with the career fair as planned. For any positions that are currently not being advertised, we will still be collecting resumes and discussing options with prospective employees," Barnes told WHQR regarding the career fair.
Barnes’ full statement is below:
As we move forward into the second semester of the school year, we are beginning to look at our budget plan for the 2024-2025 school year. As everyone is aware, we are looking for ways to consolidate our budget priorities and reduce our overall spending to align to our current funding sources and adapt to our overall reduction in enrollment.
One of the main ways we can address this is by implementing a pause in hiring until we complete the budget process and have a coordinated plan for positions for the next school year. This means that we will be examining all our current vacancies and examining each one individually to determine if the position is essential for student learning or required by state law or NC General Statute. Essential positions will be reposted with a goal to fill the vacancy with an internal candidate.
Once the overall district budget is passed, we will be able to better ascertain staffing needs at each school and each department. Our ultimate goal is to use natural attrition, which is the rate of retirement and resignation, to reduce our staffing without overburdening our staff or our schools.
By slowing down on hiring now, we can better allocate and reassign all existing staff so that the district can avoid damaging the culture and efficiency of the district.