Swain County schools ask county for $1.86 million in local funding; push for $10 million utility funding for new middle school

Swain County school officials asked county leaders April 8 to include $1,863,345 in local funding for maintenance and facility operations in the 2025–26 budget and detailed additional requests for reading assistance, small-projects staffing and partial funding for nurses and social workers. They also outlined steps to pursue up to $10 million in outside funding to support water and sewer work tied to a planned middle school.

The request was presented to the joint work session of the Swain County Board of Commissioners and the Swain County Board of Education by Stephanie Treadway, identified in the meeting as a school staff member, who reviewed the maintenance-and-operations package and several special requests. The superintendent (referred to in the transcript as Mr. Sale) described recent approvals on the middle-school design team and said the district is pursuing additional construction funding and an amendment to an interlocal agreement to raise the county approval threshold for change orders.

Why it matters: county-local funding and federal Impact Aid together support core school services in Swain County, where officials told commissioners that low-wealth allotments and declining enrollment have cut per-pupil local support in recent years. District leaders said the combination of lower per-student state allocations and flat local revenue is creating pressure on staffing and on maintaining operations across school buildings.

School budget highlights and special requests Stephanie Treadway presented a facilities-and-operations package that includes salaries and fringe for a seven-person maintenance team (a program supervisor, grounds supervisor, two maintenance supervisors covering electrical and HVAC, and three groundskeepers), utilities, custodial supplies and contracts, repairs and maintenance, a Synovia bus GPS contract, and debt service tied to an earlier energy project with Schneider. Treadway said the maintenance-and-operations subtotal is $1,863,345 for 2025–26.

Line items and assumptions Treadway identified include: an estimated 2% increase in salaries (pending final state decisions), retirement costs based on a current rate of 24.04% that the district estimated at 25% for planning, a 3% estimate on health-insurance increases, workers' compensation at $23,550, and an estimated $70,000 in local funds that must be distributed pro rata to charter and virtual schools based on Swain County student enrollment. The district also reported debt-service obligations tied to an energy-savings project and a Synovia contract for GPS on buses.

Special local requests that Treadway asked the county to continue or add: - Reading assistance at the elementary schools: $175,850 (two reading-assistance positions at each elementary school). - Article 46-funded small projects team: $200,000 (a three-person crew including supervisor) to be funded from Article 46; noted as a recurring request. - Continued local support to fund 20% of nurses and social workers: $107,825. Treadway said those positions were previously supported at higher rates using federal ESSER carryover and that the district has continued partial local funding. - Dean of Students and learning-coach positions: the district is seeking to keep and expand second-in-command managerial help at schools (described as teacher-pay-scale positions that relieve principals of day-to-day management duties while principals retain sole authority for teacher evaluation).

Impact Aid, enrollment and low-wealth funding Treadway and other school speakers summarized federal Impact Aid and declining enrollment trends. The district reported a projected Impact Aid amount of $2,861,000 based on an application for 766 federally impacted students and an average daily membership (ADM) of 1,773 in the district’s five-month count. The speakers said only about 50% of the projected Impact Aid had been received at the time of the meeting and that Impact Aid levels vary by congressional action and holdbacks from prior years.

The presenters also described declines in the state’s low-wealth funding per student (noting a historical high of roughly $78 per student dropping to $39 per student in past years) and a state-determined “percent of county effort” calculation that the district said currently records Swain County at 24.8% and ranks the county 36th for ability to pay in the state. District officials attributed enrollment declines to expanded choices for families (virtual and charter schools and students attending Cherokee schools) and broader demographic trends.

Middle school project, change orders and utility funding The superintendent reported the school board has formally approved LS3P as the architect for the planned middle school and said the district is finalizing its contract with Vannoy (as named in the transcript). The superintendent said the existing interlocal agreement will be amended to increase the county and school board approval threshold for change orders from $10,000 to $90,000 to reduce routine approvals on what will be a large construction project. He also described ongoing conversations about water and sewer work and said he had sent a written request that day to Senator Corbin and Representative Clampett asking for $10,000,000 for utility work tied to the middle-school project.

The superintendent asked county staff to maintain a 30-day turnaround on payment applications (pay apps) to avoid financing charges; he said the project team can draw anticipated state funds but that prompt processing of contractor pay applications is necessary to prevent potential financing costs (he cited a potential 1.5% financing charge if payments were delayed beyond 30 days).

Next steps and district priorities District leaders urged the county to consider the maintenance-and-operations request alongside additional special requests, stressing needs for nurses and social workers, reading assistance and support staff that affect classroom instruction and student services. The superintendent said the district is tracking potential federal construction grant opportunities now pending in Congress and will pursue them; he asked commissioners and local supporters to raise the issue with federal representatives.

No formal county vote on the budget request or the interlocal amendment was recorded during the joint work session; the superintendent said the amendment and other items would be brought to the boards for formal consideration.

"We need that funding now, or we're going to see a real critical issue in the not-too-distant future," the superintendent said, urging prompt attention to the district's requests.

Ending note: district officials closed by asking commissioners to weigh the requests in upcoming budget work, and they signaled they would return with formal items (including a proposed interlocal amendment and further cost details) for board consideration.