Higher pay for Wake Schools' employees makes budget request to commissioners
The Wake County school board is asking county commissioners for a $63.2 million increase in school funding, some of which would go toward employee raises.
The school board’s proposal comes after the county manager proposed a $49 million increase Monday night, $13.2 million less than the school board planned to ask for.
The board doesn’t normally amend its budget request after the county manager's proposal and didn't propose an alternate request Tuesday night. Board members approved the request 9-0 for about a 10% increase in county funding.
County commissioners plan to hold hearings and work sessions on the budget in the next month and approve a budget on June 3.
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, County Manager David Ellis has proposed far less than what the board has asked for, but commissioners have approved a higher amount than Ellis recommends.
Commissioners contacted by WRAL News said they were just starting the deliberation process.
"Our first task is to learn as much as we can about the various proposals before us, as well as our financial constraints... We know how important our public education system is, and I'm sure we will all look forward to learning more about what is in the school system's proposed budget in the coming weeks," Commissioner Matt Calabria wrote in an email.
School Board Member Sam Hershey said he believed most Wake County residents would be receptive toward the request and understand why it's needed.
"We know it’s a big ask but these are [their] constituents," Hershey said Tuesday, referencing the commissioners. "We cannot lose more staff we cannot lose more bus drivers."
The school system is currently short dozens of bus drivers -- numbers that keep getting worse -- and more than 100 teachers -- a number that has slightly improved over the past couple of years. Wake County and school systems across the state and nation are experiencing higher levels of teacher shortages than usual.
Board Member Cheryl Caulfield said she'd heard from many constituents who are open to the board's budget request.
"They all had the same feedback: that they wanted the support to go to teachers and the classroom," she said. Caulfield has asked for a more in-depth review of the school system's budget in the future to identify ways to reduce costs and the size of future budget requests.
Board members struggled to find things to cut in the short term while they weighed how much to ask for in employee raises and staffing. Several said they were frustrated with not getting more funding from the state.
"There are major implications when we do not support children," Board Member Toshiba Rice said.
The board’s latest request is largely to maintain existing operations, increase employee pay and cover costs for new employees who were hired using federal money that’s about to go away.
The budget increase school board members approved asking for 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.
The school board also voted to conduct a study on competitive wages for future planning purposes. The study would be done by a third party.
Brittney Griffin, a seven-year bus driver with the district, told the school board she thinks the raise to a $20 minimum for bus drivers -- the biggest increase proposed Tuesday -- will help keep drivers from working for delivery companies like Amazon either instead of the school system or on top of their full-time job with the school system.
Before the vote, Griffin asked the board to consider the fact that bus drivers often work additional jobs during the school year.
"I would like for you all to understand it is not safe for us to have to work a second or third job and then wake up early in the morning and drive those kids to school," she said.
Bus drivers do more than just drive, she said, because they form relationships with the students.
"We are the bonus parents, we are the auntie, we are the uncle, we are the counselors…." Griffin said. Students even ask her for lunch money when they forget their own.
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.
To land on $63.2 million, the board chose to cut $2.5 million that's been going toward extra pay to supervise students whose buses are either exceptionally early or late. Board members hope raising bus driver pay would increase drivers to the point that buses wouldn't be exceptionally early or late anymore.
Christina Spears, president of Wake North Carolina Association of Educators, said she was worried the supervision could still be required and would fall on employees who now won't be paid to do it.
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 in county funding would raise county funding from $644.3 million to $693.3 million. A $63.2 million increase would raise county funding to $707.5 million.
Employees held school walk-ins last week to rally for better pay. Educators told WRAL News their pay is not competitive nor maintainable to provide for their families.
"I have maxed out pretty much my pay," said Kelly Carroll, Abott Creeks Elementary School teacher. "If I go to a neighboring state right now today I would make more than $45,000 more."
