Board hears budget proposal, considers separate local supplement for certified teachers

Caswell County Schools officials presented the district’s proposed local budget and capital outlay requests and discussed separate asks for teacher supplements and other one-time items.

District staff said they will ask the county for about $3.8 million in local funding for current expense and capital outlay next fiscal year. The proposal includes a 10% inflation assumption for planning, an added emergency contingency line the district said is for unplanned large-ticket items (for example major HVAC or utility events), and an estimated increase in property-insurance costs. The presentation also included a $157,000 capital request for an activity bus.

Separately, staff presented a request to the county to approve a local supplement for certified staff. The district prepared two options — $1,500 or $2,000 per eligible certified employee — to be presented to the county as a standalone request so the county can approve or deny the supplement independent of the regular local budget. Staff said this supplemental ask would apply to personnel paid on a certified teaching scale (teachers, nurses, guidance counselors and instructional support on the certified scale) and that classified employees were not included in this particular county request; board members discussed whether to prepare a separate request for classified employees.

Board members and staff reviewed line-item increases, including higher legal and audit fees and an increased per-pupil pass-through for charter school students tied to the local funding request. Staff said they would return to the board with detailed numbers at the April 28 work session before final adoption.

The board voted to proceed with a set of local fund actions during the meeting, including budget amendments and a motion to paint district vehicles. For vehicle paint, the motion approved painting one van now and delaying painting the remaining four cars until after the next budget cycle (July–August); staff said doing the van now would either require reallocating local funds or drawing from fund balance if not delayed. Board members asked staff to confirm funding source and return with formal budget amendment language.

Several budget amendments (state allocation alignment and local fund cleanups) were moved forward and recorded as adopted; the transcript records the motions and that they carried, but no roll-call tallies were provided in the minutes available from the meeting.