When Superintendent Crystal Hill and her staff presented the 2024-25 budget plan, it included $660.4 million from Mecklenburg County — an increase of more than $63 million over this year’s $597 million allocation. But Hill and her team talked about a relatively modest increase of $35 million.
Hill and Chief Financial Officer Kelly Kluttz recently met with reporters to talk through the details, including a $16.5 million withdrawal from the CMS “savings account” that adds to the coming year’s total without requiring new county money. They also outlined plans to change the way CMS uses county money to provide additional teachers to high-needs schools.
In advance of Tuesday evening’s public hearing on Hill’s budget plan, here are some of the highlights.
$35 million for ongoing needs
The $35 million emphasized by Hill, Kluttz and school board Chair Stephanie Sneed goes toward what they call recurring operating expenses — money that, if approved, will be baked into future budgets. That includes such things as increasing the local supplement for teacher pay, raising pay for hourly workers, hiring maintenance and support staff for two new schools and passing along money for the growing number of Mecklenburg County students in charter schools — as well as rising costs for things that are already in the budget.
“If the county says yes to this $35 million it is now part of our operating cost and we’ll continue to get that every single year,” Hill said.
That amount is slightly smaller than the increase of almost $40 million that Mecklenburg County commissioners approved a year ago. But there’s an additional $12 million for the coming year, which Hill and Kluttz carved off as one-time requests.
$12 million more for raises and laptops
You don’t often hear county commissioners scold CMS leaders for asking for too little money. But that happened at a joint budget planning meeting in February, when CMS presented a three-year plan for boosting hourly pay for bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria staff and other non-salaried employees. It called for taking two years to get the lowest–paid workers to $20 an hour. Two commissioners said that needed to happen faster and wondered aloud if there was a way to do that.
Hill says that’s what inspired the split approach to this year’s budget presentation. This year’s request includes $13.8 million for hourly raises. That includes changing the bottom level of the hourly pay scale from $15.60 an hour to $17.25 — but providing a one-time bonus to the lowest–paid staff that gets them to the equivalent of $20 an hour. The following year, CMS plans to follow its plan and adjust the pay scale so no one is below $20 an hour.
CMS then pulled the $4 million that would cover the bonus out of the recurring budget and listed it separately as a one-time request.
The plan also includes $8 million in county money to buy take-home laptops and tablets for students in 2024-25, also carved off as a one-time expense. It’s a first installment on an estimated $64 million needed to fully refresh the supply of student devices, which will be spread out over at least three more years.
Hill says state legislators are talking about funding such programs, so she hopes she won’t have to keep coming back to the county to cover the rest of the devices.
$16.5 million from savings for system updates
The ongoing and one-time requests bring the total requested increase to $47 million. The remaining $16.5 million would come from the CMS fund balance — essentially an account where CMS keeps county money to cover needs beyond the regular budget.
Kluttz says the money would supplement state funding to modernize payroll, finance and other business systems and would be spent over several years. It wasn’t part of the current year’s budget but will be part of the 2024-25 operating budget, even though it’s not new money.
New formulas for teachers
Within those big totals are lots of changes to adapt to changing demands — including the expiration of $60 million in federal COVID-19 funding that’s paying salaries this year. Hill plans to reorganize staff in hopes of avoiding layoffs.
One of her changes is eliminating the Student Weighted Staffing formula that’s been used for years to provide additional teachers at high-need schools. This year that formula funds 411 county-paid teachers to about 136 schools.
But because of shortages – and because principals sometimes have different ideas about the best way to meet their school’s needs – 302 of those slots have been “swapped” for something else, such as hiring deans for administrative support or carving out money for Teacher Leader Pathway jobs, which provide extra pay for experienced, effective teachers who take on extra duties.
Hill says the loss of Student Weighted Staffing jobs should be offset by additions elsewhere in her budget, such as adding a math and literacy teacher and a technology associate at each school, shifting local money to keep some student services jobs that had been paid through federal COVID-19 aid and adding 39 assistant principals. She says she’s also adding some multilingual teachers and teacher leader money.
Hill says the amount of federal Title I money for high-poverty schools will increase next year, and she’s encouraging principals to use that to hire teachers.
“The best way to meet your goals is to utilize your Title I dollars in the way that we know is going to give us the biggest bang for our buck,” she said. “And that’s by spending your Title I dollars on teachers.”
Capital spending
The county also provides money for capital improvements, outside of the operating budget.
“That covers the sinking football field at Butler. That pays for the rotting track at Providence. That pays for the air-conditioning leak that’s pouring at Elizabeth Traditional right now,” she said.
The current year’s capital budget for CMS is almost $23 million. CMS is asking the county to continue that amount and add another $19 million for projects such as HVAC and roofing replacements at an additional 30 schools. That’s part of a three-year plan to catch up on major needs at the schools that were not covered by the $2.5 billion bond referendum voters approved last year.
The 30 bond projects are not part of the CMS budget; instead, the debt payment becomes part of the county’s budget.
Next steps
People who want to learn more and ask questions can take part in a virtual town hall meeting at 6 p.m. Monday; click here to join. The school board will hold a public hearing on Hill’s budget proposal at Tuesday’s meeting, then vote at a special meeting April 30.
CMS will then take the approved budget to county commissioners in May. Because CMS doesn’t have taxing authority, it’s up to county officials to decide how much local funding the district receives.
Meanwhile, the North Carolina General Assembly convenes Wednesday. State money accounts for just over half the CMS operating budget. Most spending for 2024-25 was set last year, when the state approved a two-year budget. But lawmakers can revise that budget, including adding to raises.
“In an election year, our legislators tend to give more of an increase,” Hill said.
That would be good news for district employees, but would send the budget staff back to work. The plan is based on raises averaging about 3%; if the state goes higher, CMS has to find additional county money to provide those raises for county-paid staff.
