Budget Proposal for 2025-2026
The New Hanover County Schools budget is mainly based on the number of students attending. The district projects a decrease of 259 students compared to last year, which equates to $1.8 million less for the operating budget. They anticipate having a student body of 24,599.
However, Superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes said that because of his budget priorities of hiring more staff ($2 million), including pre-K and children with disabilities services, keeping up with inflation ($770,000), and funding some school safety initiatives ($5 million), he will ask the county commission to add $8 million to the district’s operating budget. Last year, NHCS received $194.5 million from the state, $102 million from the county commission, and $19.6 million from the federal government, for a total operating budget of $316.8 million.
Chief Financial Officer Ashley Sutton announced they are banking on at least a 3% raise for teachers and staff by the General Assembly but said the state budget is still being hashed out in Raleigh. They also expect employer retirement and health insurance rates to increase by 1% and 5%, respectively.
Barnes’ proposal for the $5 million in safety initiatives calls for $4 million for 42 school specialists (basically one per school), who could be academic or behavior support specialists or graduation coaches. He also requests $380,000 for the Safe and Civil Schools program, which outlines strategies for creating a positive school climate. That money will support professional development and for one person to oversee the program. He also asks for $275,000 for four safety positions, and $243,000 for weapon detection equipment and site training.
The district will also ask for $22.6 million in capital requests. Last year, the county didn’t give the district any new capital funding. The bulk of this ask is for technology ($8.9 million), followed by repairs and renovations ($7.5 million), and facilities ($5.9 million).
Barnes also announced that New Hanover County manager Chris Coudriet hopes to fund a ‘family support’ pilot program within the schools for three years. There would be five new Department of Social Services staff, employed by the county but working in the schools to decrease absenteeism throughout the district, which Barnes has signaled as an issue in the past.
Even though these would be new support roles in the district, funding gaps remain. The district plans to divert some $130,000 from instructional supplies to athletic equipment requests. Board member Tim Merrick said that not this year, but in the next budget cycle, the teachers' supplies funding should be increased. He estimates that the district has about 1,700 teachers and would need about $1,000 each, equating to $1.7 million, as they spend a lot of their own money on the classroom.
While the board is set to vote on the official recommendation at its upcoming meeting on Tuesday, April 1, it did vote unanimously to ask the commission for an additional $7,942 for the board members’ budget.
Their budget request also includes changing a memorandum of understanding with county commissioners to cover emergency costs. An updated agreement would cover costs over half a million dollars up to a maximum of $10 million. That means the commission would pay for any emergency funding, including natural disasters, and would be the ones to receive reimbursements from the federal government or insurance policies.
While last year’s budget cycle was contentious and took three votes to pass, the board signaled to Barnes and Sutton that they were impressed with this year's budget preparations.
Board member Judy Justice said, “I have been through this process since 2018, and this is the best. [...] I feel so comfortable with this. I know what's going on. There's no mystery. It's all rational and needed. So I would like to thank our leadership.” Members Melissa Mason and Pete Wildeboer joined her in sharing similar sentiments.
Arguments over policy wording continue
While the board agreed on the budget, they did not agree on how policies should be amended and written in the future.
Take policy 4140 (foreign exchange students), for example, which currently notes that the board “embraces cultural diversity that foreign exchange students bring to the school system.”
The board debated changing the word ‘diversity’ to the phrase ‘perspectives and insights,’ which Wildeboer said was his suggestion.
Mason and board attorney Brian Kromke agreed that the change in language wouldn’t violate the Trump administration’s directives on equity, diversity, and inclusion. Merrick said the words ‘equity’ and ‘diversity’ individually are not illegal words, and board member David Perry agreed that this was not a section about DEI.
Justice told her colleagues that while she was fine changing the policy language, she felt micromanaging words aren’t helpful and cater to those who become easily offended.
“This is just sad to be afraid of a word. This country was founded on a lot better than that. We're not supposed to be afraid of words,” she said.
Next month, they’ll tackle the wording in policy 3000 (goals and objectives of the educational program) and change it from reading that the district fosters respect “and appreciation for cultural and ideological diversity and differences” to “respect for different cultures.”
Title IX Committee no more
The board also debated disbanding the Title IX committee.
Perry joined the superintendent, Title IX director, and his Democratic colleagues to ask the board to keep an advisory committee for Title IX policy.
The committee arose out of the district’s sexual abuse cases and other issues surrounding Title IX; however, Mason, Wildeboer, and members Josie Barnhart and Pat Bradford had to the votes to disband the idea of any committee and instead have John Henry, the director of Title IX, give reports to the board twice a year. Once the advisory committee idea failed, Perry joined his Republican colleagues in disbanding the official board committee.
Justice said she was shocked the committee would be discontinued.
“It wasn't just for athletics, for females, as some people were talking about, it is for a voice for our community, to protect our children and our staff from a variety of harassments and assaults, to have them aware of what goes on in the schools and in the community,” she said.
Merrick went further to say that representatives of the Carousel Center and Coastal Horizons’ Rape Crisis Center wanted to see this committee continue.
“I have had numerous emails last night and this morning that these organizations are confounded, upset, frustrated. They believe there is necessity,” he said.
He and Justice also referenced the work to be done concerning findings from the Title IX survey conducted in 2022.
Bradford said the committee's disbandment is part of an overall effort to decrease the number of committee meetings staff and members have to attend. Still, she later wanted to add more meetings to the curriculum committee and to change its make-up to include more board members (from one to three).
This prompted Justice to say the motivation for this was an attempt to “dictate curriculum. We just got done with our last meeting saying, ‘Hey, you know what? We trust Dr. Barnes and his staff, and our job is to get out of the way more.’ I think that it is important to have oversight, and that's what we do as a board, but I don't know that [the curriculum committee] needs to meet every month, or even every other month, to watch over someone who we've just voted to take from a interim to a regular, full position.”
Justice, Wildeboer, Barnhart, and Merrick voted against the changes to the curriculum committee Bradford had suggested.
