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New Hanover schools face $2.5 million shortfall; board directs 10‑year facilities sustainability plan
Summary
Superintendent and staff told the board the district faces a roughly $2.5 million funding gap after accounting for assumed state raises, benefits and prioritized requests; the board voted 7-0 to direct the superintendent to produce a 10‑year district facility/sustainability plan to address declining enrollment and operating pressures.
The New Hanover County Board of Education was told staff projects a budget shortfall and an uncertain revenue picture as the district prepares next year’s operating budget, and the board voted unanimously to ask the superintendent to develop a 10‑year facilities and sustainability plan.
At the March work session staff presented a draft local budget packet and a summary of revenue and expenditure assumptions. Miss Sutton, the staff presenter, said the district used about $2.2 million in one‑time revenue in the current year — including a FEMA reimbursement the presentation identified as about $466,000 and the sale of roughly 13 acres at the Johnson Pre‑K Center for about $1.7 million — and that staff are budgeting roughly $554,000 in fines and forfeitures next year. Sutton also said the county appropriation in staff’s working proposal assumed a 2.33% increase from county commissioners, a figure staff contrasted with a previously requested 3% county increase.
Sutton outlined staffing and benefit cost drivers the presentation treated as effectively mandatory in the near…
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