The Winston-Salem/Forsyth County school board approved a local budget request Tuesday night that’s about $33 million over what commissioners proposed.
Superintendent Don Phipps built a base budget around what county officials have said they plan to give the district — just under $180 million.
But he also prepared an additional request to fund critical needs that won’t be covered elsewhere, like roughly 70 Exceptional Children positions, 40 teachers and 76 classified flex employees, which could be instructional or bilingual assistants, for example.
That brings the total ask to around $213 million.
“A large number, and what would become our responsibility, would be justification for what we can't do simply based on the state allotment that we have, and what we're asking our commissioners to step in and help fund," Phipps said.
The school board unanimously approved the request, but it still falls short of what many educators have called for. A petition signed by thousands of district staff pushed for more than 200 EC positions, 30 bilingual family support staff members and 150 classified employees.
During the public comment portion of the meeting, EC Teacher Lee Childress spoke about the current challenging working conditions.
"Our people are struggling, struggling hard, and if we continue on this path, we're going to continue to lose our staff," Childress said. "We're going to continue to lose our students, and we cannot afford to do that."
The board also voted to cancel class on May 1. Officials say approximately 900 district employees have already called out to protest in Raleigh for increased public school funding.