Asheville City Schools weighs pay-table changes, $4.7M fund-balance use and interim budget ahead of vote

The Asheville City Schools Board of Education on Monday reviewed a wide-ranging interim budget package and several proposed changes to employee pay schedules that the district plans to consider at its regular meeting tomorrow.

In a presentation led by district finance staff, Heidi said an interim budget resolution is needed because the state allotment is not yet finalized; the resolution would keep operations running while staff await final state figures. The board heard proposals that together would raise district salary and benefit costs significantly — staff presented an "increased costs" estimate of about $8.4 million, with $6.8 million attributed to salaries and benefits and options to use roughly $4.7 million of the district's fund balance to cover enhancements this year.

Why it matters: The package includes items that change recurring compensation, a decision that board members cautioned could be difficult to maintain long term. Staff emphasized that some measures respond to wage-compression and equity concerns and would be implemented only if the legislature's raise or available revenues allow.

Key proposals and numbers: Heidi outlined several separate decisions the board could make tomorrow: - Hourly (classified) staff: adopt the state-mandated 3% across-the-board raise or a 3% minimum with a $1/hour floor ("3% or $1 minimum, whichever is greater"). Staff estimated that providing the $1 minimum in addition to the state 3% would cost about $216,000 beyond the base 3% scenario; moving the hourly table to a $1.50/hour flat add would cost roughly $420,000–$520,000 more. The full 3% on the hourly pay table was estimated at about $1.7 million. - Local supplement: adjust supplement percentages across cells (a proposed cost of about $233,000) and add a 2% local-supplement increase specifically for exceptional-children (EC) teachers and related staff (about $80,000). - Salary schedules: proposals for a principal salary schedule and a standardized central-office salary schedule were presented to restore steps for degree and experience; the principal schedule example showed meaningful increases in some cases (districtwide cost later summarized in staff materials).

Board process: Several board members asked for more time and data on some items (notably the principal and central-office schedules) and agreed the most time-sensitive items to finalize tomorrow would be the local-supplement changes and the hourly pay-table decision. Heidi said changes to payroll tables require careful timing because the district must either implement new pay tables at the start of the payroll period or compute retroactive pay.

Funding and risk: Staff described tradeoffs: using roughly $4.7 million of fund balance would leave the district at about the same fund-balance level it ended last year; finance staff cautioned that repeated use of reserves for recurring compensation carries sustainability risk and that future enrollment changes could require staffing reductions.

Next steps: The board signaled it would consider votes on the local-supplement adjustments, the EC supplement add-on, and the hourly pay-table option at its regular meeting tomorrow. Staff asked board members to submit any targeted data requests by email so the team could supply figures for tomorrow's deliberations. "We can either approve some of these as contingent on the state allotment or defer," a member said.

Ending: The board did not make final compensation decisions at the work session; members agreed to continue deliberations and planned votes at the next meeting, while recognizing the urgency of payroll timing and the public interest in compensation outcomes.