Wayne County superintendent asks commissioners for new investments in schools, citing capital needs and supplements

Superintendent Richard Witcher presented Wayne County Public Schools’ 2025–26 budget request to the Board of Education on March 3, asking local commissioners for a mix of capital and recurring operating support, including a capital ask and a set of targeted local supplements and program increases.

Witcher told the board the district’s capital needs are large and immediate: “The total capital budget request for this year is $7,820,000,” he said, and he outlined a list of prioritized projects and recurring costs that the district will ask county commissioners to fund.

The request highlighted several near-term capital priorities and recurring operating needs. On capital outlay, Witcher listed projects that include chillers (estimated roughly $600,000 each for replacements at multiple schools), window replacements across five schools (combined estimate exceeding $750,000), asphalt/paving and seal-coat work at multiple high schools, roof replacements, bleacher replacement at C. V. Aycock, and other school-specific repairs. He said the district was appropriated $2.0 million for capital last year and that base local appropriations had declined by $407,319 compared with the prior year.

On recurring operating needs Witcher asked for a package of locally funded items: funding for seven additional school resource officers (SROs) at roughly $700,000 total (the amount includes vehicles, equipment and training); a proposed recurring $500,000 appropriation for Exceptional Children services; $60,000 more for media equipment and furnishings; a new local appropriation for fine arts; $75,000 for middle school athletic equipment; and a requested 10% increase for local coaching supplements (cost shown as $93,328).

Witcher proposed keeping the current percentage-based local certified supplement at 7.5% and adding a flat $500 on top for all certified staff, and he proposed a $300 stipend for classified employees to begin moving toward pay recognition for positions such as bus drivers, instructional assistants and child nutrition workers. "If we cap that number at 7.5 percent... and add a dollar amount on top of that for all employees in those categories," he said, it will provide predictability for county budgeting, he told the board.

Witcher stressed the district’s demographic context: Wayne County’s child poverty rate stands at 28.4 percent, compared with the state rate reported in his slides, and the district educates roughly 86 percent of school-age children in the county. He noted the district’s recent academic gains — including district composite growth cited in his presentation — while arguing that sustained local investment is required to protect instructional quality and facilities.

Board members asked clarifying questions about which requests are state pass-throughs (for example, charter school funding) and what would happen if the county cannot fund all requests. The finance committee had recommended prioritizing capital projects in case partial funding is received.

Witcher said the district will present the formal budget request to the county commissioners and implied a goal of stable, indexed local supplements in future years so both the board and commissioners can plan. He closed by asking the board to approve the request to send to county government for consideration.

Ending: The board received the presentation and discussed next steps for the district’s formal request to the Wayne County Board of Commissioners; Witcher and staff will refine materials and submit the listed capital and current-expense requests for the 2025–26 budget cycle.