Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the School Budget Salary Health topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Charlotte County school leaders ask supervisors to cover local matches, propose 3% pay boost amid rising health costs
Summary
At a March 18 joint work session, Charlotte County school leaders asked the Board of Supervisors to meet local matching requirements for the FY2026 school budget, proposed a 3% salary increase for all employees, and warned that rising health insurance costs will shift about $90,000 onto employees.
At a joint budget work session March 18 at Central Middle School, Charlotte County school officials asked the Board of Supervisors to meet local matching requirements for the FY2026 budget and proposed a 3% salary increase for all school employees, citing rising health insurance costs.
The request came as School Board Chair Scotty Hamlett thanked the Board of Supervisors for financial support during the COVID pandemic and for helping implement a 1% sales tax dedicated to school construction. "The School Board's highest priority is to concentrate on paying our teachers competitively within the region," Hamlett said.
Superintendent Robbie Mason told supervisors the school division drafted its FY2026 budget using the Governor's proposed budget as a baseline, which the division interprets as the most conservative revenue forecast. Mason said state aid relies on average daily membership (ADM), that this year's ADM remains higher than projected, and that the School Board is basing its FY2026 budget on an estimated ADM of about 1,600 students.
Mason proposed a 3% salary increase for all school employees and flagged higher health insurance costs totaling approximately $300,000 for the division. He said roughly $90,000 of that increase would likely need to be passed along to employees through higher monthly premiums and asked the Board of Supervisors to consider meeting the local matches reflected in the FY2026 budget. Mason added that any additional local funding would be used to offset the employee share of premium increases.
County Administrator Daniel N. Witt opened and closed the session, thanking attendees; the transcript records no formal motions or votes during the meeting. The exchange was framed as a work session for information and budget planning rather than a decision meeting; no final appropriations or commitments from the Board of Supervisors are recorded in the transcript.
Next steps were not detailed in the transcript: school officials requested consideration of local matches and additional funding, and the Board of Supervisors will need to address those requests in their separate budget processes.
