Fort Mill administration proposes $271.7 million budget, seeks 10.5-mill increase to fund teacher raises

Miss Lourdes, presenting the administration's recommended 2026-27 budget at the April 14 Fort Mill School Board meeting, said the proposed total is $271,683,005 and that the plan the administration recommends would be financed in part by a 10.5-mill property tax increase and a $3.5 million contingency transfer to open Flint Hill Middle School.

The proposal centers on teacher compensation as the budget's primary driver. Miss Lourdes said the district would incorporate a $2,000-per-cell increase (the state's proposal) into the district scale and raise the district's starting teacher pay to $54,500, while applying a 2.5% cost-of-living adjustment to other pay scales. "This is our number 1 funding priority in this budget plan," she said.

Why it matters: administration officials told the board they cannot fully fund the proposed teacher-scale increases from state aid alone because state formula shifts and the reallocation of some funds reduced the district's state aid-to-classroom allocation. Presenter analysis showed a reduction of roughly $605,773 in one state aid line and a net gap on the order of the low six figures once other state line items are considered.

Key figures and priorities: the recommended budget assumes - total expenditures of $271,683,005; - a revenue model that includes a 10.5-mill property tax increase (administration's recommendation in the presentation); - a $3,500,000 contingency transfer earmarked to open Flint Hill Middle School; - salary and fringe at roughly 89% of expenditures and operations/maintenance at about 6.2%.

The administration grouped requests by priority categories. Category 1 (the near-term, must-fund items) includes the teacher pay scale increase (adding the 30th step and lifting starting pay), a modest cost-of-living adjustment across other salary schedules, key operational costs (utilities, substitutes, transportation) and a small net add of classroom and special education staff (the presenter listed a net of four new classroom teachers and several special education assistants after repurposing FTEs). Category 2 and 3 items that round out the 10.5-mill picture include an additional ESOL teacher, maintaining an inclusion support coach as a recurring item, a receptionist/504 coordinator for a new Building D, a district webmaster to meet updated ADA Title II web-accessibility expectations, and expanded extracurricular funding and testing coordinator positions at the high school level (three testing coordinators were estimated at $598,000 and tied to an additional 1.5 mills if pursued).

The presentation also set out what the administration would do with a still-larger millage: Category 4 would finish four elementary math coaches; Category 5 would fund two regular pre-K and two special-ed pre-K classrooms and reduce the one-time contingency draw for the new middle school.

Administration said the budget and millage recommendations are built on early state allocations (house ways and means figures to date) and noted there will likely be two or three updated allocation versions before final state numbers are set. Miss Lourdes said district staff will host an Old English Consortium (OEC) legislative breakfast to walk legislators and district leaders through the state allocation spreadsheet and advocate on funding formula issues affecting growth districts.

Board members pressed administration on details: special education drivers (increased intensity of needs and medically fragile students), which positions rely on federal grants that could expire (presenters identified two positions tied to federal funding streams), metrics for new programs (Dr. Wake Smith cited prior results—Banks Trail Middle's interventionist correlated with an 8% increase in SC Ready math in a previous year), and contingency and bond planning for deferred maintenance.

Next steps: the board asked staff to return with additional analyses over the next two meetings. Administration said it will place the budget on the agenda for two upcoming meetings, hold a public hearing on the budget on June 1, and seek approval of the final budget that evening. The administration also said it would report back after the OEC legislative breakfast on any state-level clarifications.

Provenance: topicintro SEG 123; topfinish SEG 2249.

Speakers (selected): Miss Lourdes (presenter), Dr. Wake Smith (district academic leader quoted for evaluation metrics), multiple board members asking questions and clarifications.

Topics/Tags: budget, teacher pay, property tax, contingency, Flint Hill Middle, special education, OEC legislative outreach.