$49M more should go to Wake schools, county manager proposes in new budget
Wake County Manager David Ellis is proposing a $49 million increase to public school funding next year — less than the increase the school board was asking for but more than Ellis has recommended in prior years.
Ellis presented his 2024-25 budget proposal to county commissioners Monday night. Ellis’ budget presentation didn’t include details on how he thinks the Wake school board should spend the money; while commissioners set funding, the school board ultimately decides what the dollars go to.
Ellis said he proposed the increase because public schools are a significant part of the community. He said he wants to ensure schools have what they need “to foster learning and safe and welcoming spaces.”
Ellis is proposing an increase in funding for emergency management and many other services. However, he’s proposing decreasing property taxes after this year’s revaluation resulted in much higher property values for many residents. The proposed new tax rate of 51.05 cents per $100 of property value is higher than the tax rate needed to maintain existing revenues, but it’s well below the current property tax rate of 65.7 cents per $100 of property value.
Residents can submit comments on the budget as soon as Monday night on the county’s website.
The Wake County school board will vote on Tuesday to ask the commissioners for a $63.2 million increase in school funding. The request is largely to maintain existing operations but with two changes: Increasing employee pay and using local and other funding sources to cover relatively new employees hired using one-time federal money that’s about to go away.
In recent years, the school board hasn’t adjusted its budget proposal after hearing Ellis propose a lower funding amount.
The school board has requested a more than $50 million budget increase each of the past two years and has come away with almost all of that funding minus a few million dollars. Each year, Ellis has proposed far less than what the board has asked for, but commissioners have approved a higher amount than Ellis recommends.
School Board Chairman Chris Heagarty didn’t immediately respond to a WRAL request for comment Monday night.
Commissioners so far plan to vote on a budget on June 3. Before that, commissioners will hold budget work sessions on May 13 and May 23. They will receive virtual public comments and hold public hearings on the budget on May 20 and May 21. The May 20 hearing will be at 2 p.m. at the Wake County Justice Center in downtown Raleigh. The May 21 hearing will be at 7 p.m. in the Wake Commons Building southeast of downtown.
The final budget will likely be influenced further by any new state budget the North Carolina General Assembly approves during its short session. The new fiscal year starts July 1 for both counties and the state.
The budget increase school board members tentatively agreed on last week includes raises for most employees. The raises are:
- Minimum wage increase from $18.55 per hour for bus drivers to $20 per hour, costing $1.1 million. It would amount to thousands more dollars for bus drivers next year.
- Minimum wage increase to $17.75 per hour, or a 4% wage increase, for non-certified staff, such as cafeteria workers and maintenance workers. That would cost $4.1 million and amount to several hundred more dollars for employees next year.
- Salary supplement increase of 4% for certified employees, such as teachers, counselors and speech language pathologists. That would cost $7.6 million and amount to a few hundred dollars next year for employees.
Other items that the school board budget request would fund next year include $9.9 million in raises for locally funded employees to match state-funded employees, $9 million in required support for charter schools, $3.8 million toward costs for a new elementary school opening in Holly Springs, and $2.3 million toward rising property costs, among other things.
The board plans to keep some employees next year who have been funded using one-time federal pandemic stimulus dollars. That includes $4 million for full-time substitute teachers who are assigned to only one school. It also includes some behavioral health support professionals, who would be funded by Medicaid and leftover federal dollars.
The school system is mostly funded by the state, which provides more than $1 billion. The school system’s budget tops $2.2 billion overall, and hundreds of millions more are dedicated to school buildings. A $49 million increase to county funding would raise county funding from $644.3 million to $693.3 million.
