Depending of which version of the state budget wins favor in the General Assembly in the coming days, Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools could be facing between $850,000 and $3 million dollars worth of budget cuts.

The school board held a special meeting on Tuesday to review options for dealing with those cuts. Elected leaders said the focus should be protecting the student experience in the classroom.

“Right now we’re trying to preserve the core education for our kids,” said board member Michelle Brownstein.

All agreed the House plan, which maintains funding for teaching assistants and includes a 5 percent pay raise for teachers, is the best case scenario. Still, it would require $850,000 worth of local budget cuts, including the loss of 4.5 gifted education specialist positions.

A second round of cuts could be necessary if the General Assembly adopts a budget similar to the Senate’s spending plan.

That could include eliminating the district’s service learning coordinator, cutting media assistants to part-time, losing three and a half more gifted education positions, and shifting some custodial staff to lower-paid contract work.

While all that would trim nearly $1 million dollars, officials acknowledge that’s not enough to account for the shortfall in the Senate’s budget proposal, which calls for an 11 percent pay raise while slashing funding for teaching assistants.

Assistant Superintendent Todd LoFrese told the board hiring for 80 teaching assistant positions is on hold until the state’s final budget is approved.

“We’ve been preparing for this for over a year, and so the teaching assistants that were hired all throughout last year were placed on interim contracts, and while we’d like to hire them back, we’re not going to do so until we have clarity,” said LoFrese.

School board officials hope to sign off on the budget July 17, but they say another emergency meeting could be needed if the legislature unveils any last minute surprises.

Related Stories
‹
CHCCS Faces $900k Budget Gap And Loss of 22 TAs
With the new state spending plan in place, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools are facing a nearly one million dollar budget gap.
NCGA Budget Impasse Leaves Local TA's In Limbo
Nearly 100 teaching assistants in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school system are in limbo, waiting to find out if they’ll still have jobs when school starts.
OC Approves 2-Cent Property Tax Hike
Orange County Commissioners on Tuesday approved the first property tax rate increase in five years.
Schools, County In Limbo Awaiting NCGA Budget
School and County officials are in limbo awaiting the final state budget, but they say it’s likely to hit local schools hard.
Hundreds Call On BoCC To Spend More On Schools
Hundreds came out to Thursday’s budget public hearing to tell Orange County Commissioners to increase school funding.
'We Must Invest in Our Children': OC Commissioners Hear School Budget Requests
This year, Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (CHCCS) and Orange County Schools (OCS) requested millions more in school funding to better support the growing needs of students in the county.
CHCCS Year Starts: Faces Challenges of No State Budget
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools started a new school year on Tuesday. While the students returning brings challenges of its own, budgeting over the summer was a challenge with no new state budget. North Carolina’s budget has been in a state of limbo since Governor Roy Cooper vetoed a proposal from Republican legislators in late June. […]
No Property Tax Rate Increase In BoCC Budget Proposal
Next year’s county budget doesn’t include a tax increase, but officials say it’s getting harder to balance the budget using reserve funds.
BoCC Eyes CHCCS District Tax, Not Property Tax, For School Funding
CHAPEL HILL- Orange County Commissioners signaled on Thursday that they’re looking for more money to fund public schools, but they stopped short of supporting a countywide property tax rate increase. “As much as I believe in a strong school system, raising the taxes, personally I believe we have to really have to take a deep […]
CHCCS Reviewing Applications, Community Survey Responses for Next Superintendent
The Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education is entering the next phase of its search for a new superintendent to succeed Nyah Hamlett, who will be leaving at the end of this academic year in June. During the application window, CHCCS received 37 applications coming from 14 different states for the superintendent position.  […]
›