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School board approves $4M budget amendment, raises micro-purchase limit and clears technology purchase
Summary
The board approved a roughly $4 million budget amendment that included state and federal increases and bus leases, voted to raise the micro-purchase threshold from $10,000 to $50,000 to align with state practice, and approved a desktop-lab software purchase after staff clarified it is not cloud-based.
The New Hanover County Schools Board of Education approved a budget amendment and several procurement items after discussion of funding sources and procurement oversight.
Miss Sutton summarized the AG budget amendment as "a little over $4 million" in total increases: about $1.5 million in additional state revenue primarily for salaries, approximately $532,000 in federal funds (noted as grants for exceptional children and teacher-quality/CTE work), and capital outlay increases that included state-approved bus leases so the state pays for additional yellow buses.
The board voted to approve the AG amendment (recorded in the minutes as passing unanimously among those present). The motion to approve the personnel report and other routine consent items also moved forward.
On procurement, Mr. Perry challenged a proposed increase in the district's micro-purchase threshold from $10,000 to $50,000, saying he did not want to "just give cop[é] blanche to spend" without oversight and emphasizing the need to give local businesses a fair shot at contracts. Supporters said the higher threshold aligns with state practice and credited the finance office with cost savings; the board voted to raise the micro-purchase limit, recorded as passing six to one.
Item AC, a software package for lab desktop computers at the district's four traditional high schools (used for Adobe, drafting and similar lab classes), was clarified by staff as stored locally on lab desktops, not on third-party cloud servers, and the board approved AC.
Votes taken during this segment include approval of AG (budget amendment), passage of X (micro-purchase threshold increase), and approval of AC (lab-software purchase). Staff noted that movement within funds (not a change to local current expense) and additional federal and state grant awards accounted for the increases reported.
