Washington County school board amends budget to remove proposed raises, restores maintenance increases; shortfall narrowed

At a called meeting, Washington County school officials approved an amended fiscal‑year budget that removes the proposed across‑the‑board raises while preserving scheduled step increases for certified staff and restores three maintenance line‑item increases totaling $516,533.

The changes were presented to the board by a staff member who walked the group through line‑by‑line figures. The staff member said the initial package had included a $2,095 flat raise for certified personnel, a classified raise originally proposed as $1 per hour (about $660,000), an equivalent hourly adjustment for bus drivers (about $108,000), and a $125,000 reduction after removing a previously proposed $2,000 flat raise for management positions. The staff member also said identified positions reserved for possible early‑year hires (about $700,000) had been pulled from the reduction list and held in reserve. After those changes, the staff member said the reduction total reached roughly $3.98 million and that the remaining gap in the budget is about $86,633, excluding a $2 million fund balance amount already applied to the budget.

Board member Flayner moved to adopt the budget package as amended; board member Hammond seconded. During debate, one board member proposed restoring $32,500 in school leadership stipends but that amendment did not move forward. Another board member, Eric, proposed an amendment to remove previously approved increases in three maintenance line items — maintenance and repair of buildings, maintenance and repair of equipment, and other maintenance supplies and materials — which reduced the proposed increases back to prior budgeted levels and represented $516,533 of the total adjustments. The board approved Eric’s amendment and then voted to approve the budget as amended. The meeting record does not provide a roll‑call tally for the final vote.

Board members and staff repeatedly emphasized that the board left scheduled step increases intact for salary schedules approved for the fiscal year. The staff member reiterated that the amendments remove the proposed additional raises for every employee category while maintaining the scheduled step increases, which move employees along the pay scale by years of service as previously approved.

Staff calculations presented at the meeting also outlined what the district would face in future years if current raises are deferred. The staff member said reaching a $50,000 starting teacher salary on the adopted step schedule would require a substantially larger increase in a future year — the staff estimate for updating the teacher schedule toward that target was roughly $3.6 million (about $3,700,000). Earlier in the discussion staff estimated that applying the proposed reductions and the previously allocated $2 million fund balance would have required using approximately $2,486,324 of fund balance to balance the budget; the amended package changed the totals but still left choices for next year.

Board members also asked about state requirements. A staff member explained that the state has identified a required minimum salary amount for teachers and that the district would be expected to demonstrate compliance; the staff member said the state commissioner of education has the authority to withhold state funds if a district does not meet legal minimums. Several board members said they were concerned about “kicking the problem down the road” and expressed reluctance to defer cost pressures that would likely recur next year.

What changed: the board removed the proposed across‑the‑board raises (while preserving scheduled step increases), restored three maintenance line items to their prior budget levels (a $516,533 adjustment), and kept eight identified positions available in the budget for potential early‑year staffing. The board concluded the called meeting with the amended budget adopted and with remaining choices to make about balancing future years’ salary obligations.

Details and next steps: staff flagged that if the district does not meet the state minimum teacher salary requirement in a future year, the district would need to repurpose funds or make cuts to meet the mandate, and the commissioner may withhold state funding for noncompliance. The board did not set a final plan to cover the multi‑year gap; several members said they expect to revisit compensation and budget priorities during upcoming meetings.