Chapel Hill – Carrboro City Schools assistant superintendent Todd LoFrese said at the Board of Education meeting last Thursday that the system is receiving new information regarding the budgetary process, but that does not necessarily make the picture any clearer.

“We do have a lot more information,” LoFrese said, “however, we have the same amount of uncertainty I think because we really don’t know what’s going to happen, as of now, and what it all means for our operating budget next year.”

The muddiness of the situation comes because no state or local operating budget is set in stone.

The state House and Senate have both released appropriations proposals, but LoFrese said the two proposals have very different strategies and outcomes regarding teacher pay.

“The House provides a more modest increase of around 3.5 percent, an average of 3.5 percent that is,” he said. “The Senate’s version is closer to six percent.”

In the school board’s budget request to the county, the system had estimated a five percent increase across the board.

The school’s budget also asked for approximately $4.5 million in additional funds from the county in order to boost teacher pay. The district has already committed to the additional funding to boost the local teacher pay supplement, in response to Wake County increasing its local supplement.

The county manager’s budget proposal did not fully fund the increased requests from each of the local districts, which has been the subject of two public comment sessions to the County Commissioners.

Board member Pat Heinrich said the district has already seen a positive impact in recruiting potential teachers with the increased supplement.

LoFrese said, while the recommended budget does not fully fund the requests, there is an increase in per-pupil spending.

“Twenty-four dollars [increase] per pupil,” LoFrese said. “And [the manager] also recommended funding all of the nurses and school resource officers in the district, as well as Orange County Schools.

“This is a benefit to the district.”

LoFrese added that the net increase from increased per-pupil spending may not be what some were expecting because the district’s enrollment is projected to decrease next academic year.

“The net increase in funding to the district is about $350,000,” he said. “Our request was a request of about $4.5 million.”

LoFrese said the district has received concerned comments from parents over the decreasing in staffing at some schools, but LoFrese said that correlated to the drop in enrollment and was not a reflection of any budget concerns.

The County Commissioners will meet several times in the month of June – including a regular meeting on Tuesday and a budget work session on Thursday of this week – before possibly approving a final budget on June 21.

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