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Davidson County Schools asks commissioners for $1.7 million to avoid assistant-principal cuts
Summary
A representative for Davidson County Schools told the board the district faces a $3.1 million combined hit from state cuts and enrollment losses and formally requested $1,700,000 in local operational support to preserve 12 elementary assistant-principal posts and raise the local teacher supplement toward 7%.
A representative for Davidson County Schools told the Davidson County Board of Commissioners on May 26 that the district faces an immediate multimillion-dollar shortfall and asked the county to provide $1,700,000 in additional operational funding to avoid staff cuts.
The speaker said the district absorbed a $2,000,000 reduction in state funding tied to a loss of 295 students and has seen roughly $1,100,000 redirected from the district by charter-school enrollment changes. To blunt those losses, the district requested $793,014 to preserve assistant-principal positions at 12 elementary schools and $960,986 to raise the local teacher supplement toward a 7% target — a combined request of $1,700,000.
The district representative described what the assistant-principal cuts would mean operationally. At the 12 identified elementary schools the district reported 1,094 behavioral incidents, 143 mental-health crises, 65 suicide risk assessments and 78 threat-of-violence screenings this year alone. "Expecting a single principal to run a campus, handle thousands of behavioral and mental-health crises, evaluate dozens of teachers and coordinate massive transportation footprints by themselves is simply unsustainable," the representative told commissioners.
The speaker also said the district added 1.6 percentage points to the local teacher supplement last year (from 6.125% to 6.75%) and is asking for $960,986 to move incrementally toward a 7% supplement to aid recruitment and retention.
Commissioners and board members exchanged questions about timing and next steps. County staff and the speaker confirmed a budget work session is scheduled for June 4, when commissioners will have additional opportunity to review requests and ask detailed financial questions.
The district framed the request as targeted operational support, not a long-term guaranteed entitlement, and emphasized that the $1.7 million request represents a small change relative to the county's overall property-tax base: the speaker said it is less than 0.01 on the county tax rate, according to figures presented to the board.
What happens next: The board will take the request under consideration in the June 4 budget work session and incorporate it into revenue and expenditure assumptions before adopting a final budget. No formal county funding decision was made at the May 26 hearing.
