Changing school temps, salary add-ons in final Wake schools budget draft

Changing school building temperatures by one degree will be a part of final budget recommendations for the Wake County school board.

The school board's budget committee decided Tuesday to propose raising air conditioning set points from 73 degrees to 74 degrees and changing heating set points from 70 degrees to 69 degrees.

They also propose raising their supplement for educators by only 1.5%, instead of the 3% recommended by Superintendent Robert Taylor.

All of this would allow school employees to keep getting their dental insurance contributions, avoid cuts at the lowest-performing schools and keep certain maintenance projects that were set to be paused.

Board Member Lindsay Mahaffey said the budget talks this spring have been the most challenging in her nine years on the board.

"This is probably the most difficult budget," she said.

Board members lamented that they couldn't add anything to the budget this year, as they have in recent years.

"There is a budget I will agree to but won't support," Board Member Lynn Edmonds said. She said state lawmakers need to provide more funding for schools.

On Tuesday, board members emphasized wanting to keep anything that helps children learn at the classroom level and that helps recruit and retain educators.

This is still subject to change based on state and county budget proposals.

The school board will vote May 6 on their final recommendations to county commissioners. Commissioners must approve a budget by June 30.

"This will not be our last time touching this budget," Board Vice Chairman Tyler Swanson said, adding that the board has passed interim budgets before when state budgets came in late. "The budget is just getting started."

The draft budget would require roughly $40 million more from the county. But that is still less than the more than $60 million in expected increased operating costs that Taylor expects next year, prompting him to propose more than $18 million in cuts. He expects costs to rise because of higher enrollment, four new schools opening, rising benefit costs and the likelihood that the county will need to raise locally funded employees' pay to match any new state employee pay increases.

Tuesday's tentative agreement -- it was not voted on but was not objected to -- keeps most of the cuts. That includes cuts to various software, supplies and other tools, as well as secretarial staff, digital learning specialists, 10 social workers, 10 counselors and five nurses. Some of those positions aren't filled, and the district hopes to move current employees to other open positions, if the budget were implemented.

Board members had zeroed in a few items Taylor proposed cutting, trying to find a way too keep them. That included the dental insurance contribution, which costs about $2.5 million, the $600,000 in proposed maintenance cuts and the $1 million in proposed cuts to low-performing "Restart Schools," which sometimes have more money to spend because of regulatory flexibility.

Changing school temperatures -- a measure undertaken during the tight budget of the Great Recession, as well -- will save $500,000. Raising the educator salary supplement by only 1.5% instead of 3% will save $2.8 million. The district can also use roughly $1 million in "community use" funds to help cover some costs without disrupting community use programs, officials said. Those programs include activities hosted by community groups on Wake school campuses, which often require them to pay a fee.