Pender County Schools asks county for increased supplements, staffing and $11.7 million in capital projects

Pender County Schools Superintendent Doctor (name not specified) told the county commission that the district—s proposed FY2025-26 current expense and capital budgets aim to keep staff in place and advance student supports while absorbing state and health-care cost increases. The district is asking the county to fund a combination of current-expense increases (to maintain existing staff and proposed supplements) and a first-year capital request totaling $11,731,301.

The superintendent said the district lost federal ESSER funds and that local support helped retain positions tied to those grants: "we were able to keep many of our employees that were tied into it." He credited county funding for preserving positions such as nurses and for supporting transportation and technology improvements the board requested this year.

The district framed its current-expense case around three priorities: recruitment, retention and instructional support. The budget proposal includes raising the local supplement for certified staff from 10% to 11% and for classified staff from 5% to 6%, increasing coaching stipends, adding assistant principals to move toward a 1:400 administrator-to-student ratio, and creating advanced teaching roles. The superintendent described the last measure as a way to "keep our best teachers in the classroom" by offering higher pay and leadership responsibilities without pushing them into administration.

Why it matters: Pender County Schools reports 10,737 average daily membership (ADM), and the district said the state—s change to pay schools in arrears increases budgeting uncertainty: "if you're gaining students, you just kind of have to suffer it out until the end of the year." The district also faces rising retirement contribution rates and higher health insurance costs; county staff presenting the slides said hospitalization per employee is projected to rise from about $8,095 to roughly $8,500 and retirement contributions are expected to increase by 0.63 percentage points.

Capital summary and requests: The superintendent presented a five-year capital improvement plan. For FY25-26 the district requested $11,731,301 for items including $100,000 for engineering/architectural services, roughly $1 million for furniture modernization, $5,623,000 for deferred maintenance projects, $1,790,000 for HVAC work, $1,480,000 for technology as part of a seven-year refresh (cameras, student and teacher devices), $398,000 for transportation fleet replacements and an activity bus, and $725,000 for facility repairs. He told the commissioners the district previously received $2.9 million per year and that the FY25-26 request leaves a gap of $8,831,301 relative to that baseline.

Questions from commissioners ranged across teacher pay and retention, redistricting tied to the new K-8 school, construction progress on the K-8 site and bus-driver recruitment. On bus drivers, the superintendent said the district is "marketing those positions," has increased pay for drivers, and plans a three-tier bell schedule on the east side to reduce the number of buses and offer more full‑time positions with benefits.

The superintendent also flagged a $900,000 federal grant (over three years) to support advanced teaching roles that requires local matching funds of roughly $75,000 per year. He described proposed program investments including STEM, fine arts and student support positions and transition/ACT boot camps for students that site-based teams requested.

Ending: The presentation closed with the superintendent offering to provide additional detail on costs and to answer follow-up questions; commissioners asked staff to model the fiscal impact of reinstating a former graduate-degree supplement for teachers and to return with numbers.