Swain County Board approves consent agenda, attendance and Native American policy revisions and adopts 2025–26 budget including $52 million state construction**

The Swain County Board of Education approved its consent agenda, accepted annual revisions to two district policies and adopted the proposed 2025–26 budget during its December meeting.

Superintendent recommended approval of the consent agenda, which included personnel items and minutes from the Dec. 8 and Dec. 23, 2025 meetings; a trustee moved the motion and a second was received. The board voted by hand-raise and the chair recorded the motion as approved (counts were not stated in the record).

The board next approved policy 4400, an attendance-policy revision that changes the metric for a half-day to 51% as required by the state and clarifies remote-education communications and delegation authority for principals. The board also approved the annual revision to policy 4060 (Native American policies and procedures); the superintendent said the only substantive edits were date corrections and that the policy’s substance remains unchanged.

Miss Hines, presenting the proposed 2025–26 budget, told trustees that the year’s total budget figure is substantially larger than prior years primarily because it now includes construction funding. "The state did award us $52,000,000 to build a new middle school and the county is going to match 5% of that," she said. The superintendent recommended approval of the budget resolution; the board moved, seconded and approved the resolution by voice/hand-raise. The record does not contain a roll-call tally.

Board members discussed funding uncertainty tied to state-level decisions and noted the district had built a 2% contingency for a possible late state salary increase. Presenters also stressed that more than half of the expanded budget is tied to construction projects, not routine operations.

The superintendent told trustees there are continuing construction conversations underway (water and sewer coordination was specifically mentioned) and that staff will return with details as they are finalized. The board finished the public portion of the meeting and subsequently moved to a closed session under North Carolina statute 143.11 (A1, A5) to consider confidential matters.

What happens next: staff will provide follow-up budget details and any construction-related updates as those items progress; the board did not set additional special meetings in the minutes recorded at the meeting.