Community Members Ask Orange County To Increase School Funding

School funding quickly became the focus of the public hearing held by the Orange County Board of Commissioners Thursday night.

Teachers, students and parents from Orange County Schools showed up in Hillsborough to ask the board to consider increasing the budget for the system.

Gravelly Hill Middle School teacher Tom Mullaney talked about local teachers providing high quality education.

“If you grant Orange County Schools the money it deserves, those teachers will still do that, ” he said. “If you don’t, those teachers will still do that, but they might do it in Wake County; they might do it in another state.”

County manager Bonnie Hammersley presented her recommended budget for the 2016-2017 fiscal year last week.

In it, she gave Orange County Schools an increase of around $1 million to their current budget, short of the $1.7 million they were asking for.

All of the additional funding is scheduled to go toward increasing teacher pay, but many urged the commissioners to give the full amount.

“The only way to get good teachers is to pay them well and treat them well,” said parent Dana White. “We as a county need to be a leader in the effort of valuing our teachers and our children.”

The 2015-2016 budget provided an increase of $126.50 cents per pupil over the previous year’s budget. Hammersley recommended an increase of $133.10 for the upcoming fiscal year.

“It’s distressing when well-meaning people send us emails saying we’re cutting funds to schools,” commissioner Barry Jacobs said. “When we, in fact, have a history of doing as much as we possibly can to increase funding for schools, even as the state is moving at an even faster trajectory to cut.”

But that didn’t stop residents from expressing their frustration with both the state and the county.

Former commissioner and current Orange County School Board member Steve Halkiotis said the county commissioners needed to commit to students.

“The seven of you must save the children,” he said. “Don’t throw the kids under the bus. Don’t throw the teachers under the bus. Don’t throw the community under the bus. The children are looking to us, we have to fight for them.”

The commissioners will hold another public hearing on the county budget May 19.