Wake schools proposes another employee pay bump

Wake County school employees would get slightly higher raises this year than previously announced, under a budget presented Tuesday.

County school board members debated the about $2 billion proposal Tuesday, however, after learning they would need to move a few million in non-recurring funds to cover it.

Board Member Jim Martin said budgeting using temporary funds — especially reserve funds and lapsed salaries — is “poor long-term planning.” At the same time, Martin was glad for the pay raises and lamented they weren’t high enough to cover the rate of inflation.

Board Member Christine Kushner said she was glad to see a balanced budget.

“I think we’ve done the best we can, and I don’t think it’s sustainable to do anything more than what we’ve tried to do,” Kushner said.

The Wake County Board of Education will vote Aug. 16 on final budget for the year. Tuesday’s proposal is a revision to a budget the board approved asking for in May but never finalized because of an anticipated new state budget, which ended up becoming law in July.

Because lawmakers, with Gov. Roy Cooper’s signature, raised pay for school employees more than originally planned, the school system will be able to cover more pay increases than it originally sought from Wake County commissioners.

Commissioners approved all but $6 million of the school board’s requested budget for this year — including a $50 million increase in county funding. That budget request already included pay increases.

Under the school system’s new proposed budget, presented to the board Tuesday, teachers and principals would receive 4% increases to their local salary supplements, instead of 2.5% increases.

For teachers, that would be between $276.08 to $541.60 more next year.

Hourly employees would receive a $16 per hour minimum wage or a 4% increase, whichever is greater. That would be an increase for many employees, whom the county originally sought to give raises to $16 per hour or a 2.5% increase, whichever was greater.

The school system would not spend more than originally planned for the raises for state-funded employees, because the state is now funding part of the pay increases. But it would spend more than originally planned to cover raises for locally funded employees. Those raises would be higher than first planned to match their state-funded counterparts but won’t include any state funding.

As a result, the school board would need to find $9.2 million to cut from its budget plan to avoid a shortfall.

On top of the $6 million the county did not provide, the pay raises for locally funded employees will cost $2.3 million and a retirement contribution increase will cost about $900,000.

The board’s new budget accounts for the $9.2 million shortfall by increasing revenue projections related to federal grants by $3 million, moving $3 million in expected lapsed salaries for vacant positions, moving $3 million from the district’s fund balance, appropriating $180,000 in new state funds received for its new Wake Early College of Information and Biotechnologies, and cutting $59,000 from the district’s furniture budget.